


Balancing Fate: A Hell Bent On Love Tale

by afallenblackrose



Series: Hell Bent On Love Tales [2]
Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: F/M, my secret nanwrimo project from 2013, no really it does, this thing sucks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2017-02-18
Packaged: 2018-09-06 07:16:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 55,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8739895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afallenblackrose/pseuds/afallenblackrose
Summary: When Serena went with Sapphire, "To right the balance" this was NOT what she had in mind. After being dead for over five hundred years, she's alive again and dealing with life in the twenty-first century. Not to mention she's working for her old doppelganger's boss - who she's already fallen for. Who ever said balancing fate would be easy?





	1. Endings and Beginnings

A misty fog swept over the silent city, covering everything in its path. Out on the fog covered street there walked a lone figure – a man in his late twenties, with hair as black as a raven’s wings and blue eyes that rivaled those of the deepest oceans. In his hand there was a crimson rose, its thorns still attached to its green stem. The man took no notice of the fog as it swept around him, his head was already clouded over with his own thoughts – most of which centered on a woman that he used to know. Or at least a woman he _thought_ he used to know.

He tried to shake his head of these thoughts, something he’d been trying to do since he had first met her, but it was to no avail as he entered the city’s cemetery. The path he was walking had become so familiar to him that he didn’t even have to think. His feet lead him to where he needed to go with no conscious thought from him. As he arrived at the desired tombstone he lent down and laid the rose that he held in his hand onto it. His fingers ran over the letters engraved there and shook his head.

_Serenity Anderson_

_June 30, 1986 – July 21, 2010_

_Beloved daughter and friend_

Serenity Anderson was more than just the words on the gravestone. She was a daughter and a friend, but to the man standing there, she was also so much more. Not that she had ever given him the time of day, and not that he really knew who she was.

The man sighed and leaned against a nearby tree. The first day that he had met Serenity, he thought for sure an angel had fallen out of the sky. She was so beautiful, her hair as golden as a halo, that he couldn’t believe that she was just a human being. A twenty-three year-old, who was looking for employment even though she only had a high school diploma and some college – she had currently been taken night classes. The position he was hiring for didn’t really require more than that, but still everyone else who had applied was working their way through medical school or nursing school at the least. But there was something about her that made him want to give her a chance. So he did.

They had worked together over six months, before he finally caved into their flirtatious banter. He asked her out, but she turned him down. She didn’t want to mix her personal life with her professional one. He respected her decision, and told her that if she ever changed her mind, he would be there waiting. And he had stayed true to his word. But something had changed a few weeks after that. At first he thought it was because he had made things awkward, but when the bags under her eyes began to darken and grow – he decided to take matters into his own hands.

He began following her after work, and at first, he felt like a stalker because she went to her apartment and to the local community college for her night classes. But one day, she deviated from her normal pattern. She went to the hospital – the cancer ward. His heart beat fast in his chest. Not Serenity. Not the picture of perfect health. He waited in the hallway, not sure if he could handle seeing her like that. She walked out a half hour later, her cheeks glistening with tears.

He wanted to call out to her, but he remained there frozen. Eventually he walked away from the wall, and into the ward. A nurse brightened at seeing him.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Darien Shields,” she said. “How can I help you today?”

“I was wondering about a patient of yours,” he replied. “Serenity Anderson?”

The nurse typed the name into her computer, but shook her head. “Not Serenity, but her mother Ilene is here with stage three brain cancer.”

His heart started beating again at its normal rate, but now he understood why Serenity had been acting so strange over the last few weeks. Finding out her only living parent had cancer would take the winds out of your sails and then some. He couldn’t imagine dealing with that. But why hadn’t she told him about it? He would have given her time off to spend with her mother. He would have even made it paid time off.

 _Paid_ the word sent another thought to his head. Cancer treatments weren’t inexpensive – they could even set the richest of families back a few hundred grand. Serenity didn’t really make that much at his office, and he knew that she was also paying for school, the rent on her apartment and other various bills. So how was she paying for the medical costs?

To answer his question he followed her again the next day. Also like the other day, she didn’t go straight home, but she didn’t go to the hospital or the community college either. She met a blonde man – wait, no it was a woman – at her friend Andrew’s arcade. They talked furiously for over a half an hour, and when the conversation finished, Serenity looked very frustrated. She bid her good-byes to the blonde woman and her friend Andrew before leaving for her apartment. Once there, Darien was getting ready to leave for his own place, when he saw her leave again.

And this time he had to do a double take. For the woman walking out of the apartment wasn’t the Serenity he had come to know and develop feelings for. Instead of playing down her sexy side, she flaunted it. She was wearing a tight black mini dress, her hair, which she usually wore in pigtails, was down and her face was overdone with makeup. Not to mention she was wearing her thigh high black stiletto boots. Darien had to remember to close his mouth and wipe away the drool.

Where the hell was she going looking like _that_? He didn’t know, but he followed and cursed when she walked into a club. There was no way that he would be able to follow her in there. So he stayed in his car and watched the entrance for her to exit the club, hopefully _alone_.

But she didn’t leave alone. She left with a man with blonde hair that was almost white. Darien didn’t like the look of him at all, but then again he always had a jealous streak. He breathed through his mouth as calmly as possible and followed the black SUV through the streets of the city. They stopped at a hotel and he gritted his teeth together. _What. The. Hell._

The two walked into the hotel, the man holding Serenity’s hand and giving her the _look_ that just screamed that he knew he was going to get laid tonight. Darien punched the steering wheel and tried to calm down. She had told him that she liked to keep her personal life separate from her professional one, but did that mean she had to sleep with that man? For some unknown reason, Darien didn’t like the guy and it wasn’t just because he was going to sleep with Serenity. He couldn’t help but think that he had seen the guy before. Was he a celebrity? He had to be, why else did he travel with an entourage?

Considering he had a feeling that he knew what those two would be doing, he had some time to kill. He searched the city’s newspaper, until he found what he was looking for. It was a picture of the man that Serenity had walked into the hotel room with. He swore. The man was Diamond Chambers, the dirtiest businessman in the whole damn city.

What. The. Hell. He couldn’t help but think again in anger. Didn’t Serenity realize who this man was? And if she did, then what the hell was she doing with him? She wasn’t…the thought went through his head unbidden. The way that she had been dressed that night, the woman she had talked to earlier that day. _Oh, my God_ , he thought. She wasn’t sleeping with him for money? Right? That was just ridiculous! He knew that she was hard up for money right now, but she wouldn’t stoop to that level… Would she? _Oh, Serenity_ …he thought with pity.

He sighed and watched the door, hoping to see her soon. But what he saw sickened him. It was Diamond, and he was leaving the hotel _alone_. That was it. Darien couldn’t take anymore. He got out of his car and ran up to the man, avoiding his bodyguards with ease.

“You! What did you do to her?” He screamed at the blonde haired man.

“What did I do to who?” The man retorted with a cocky smile.

“Serenity,” he hissed.

“Oh, was that the little whore’s name? Well, I can assure you I didn’t do anything to her that she didn’t want me to. Except for maybe one thing.” His cocky smile remained on his face as he handed Darien a card key. “You might want to go check on her. Make sure she’s okay. She didn’t look too good when I left her. But I have a business meeting, so tah.” He got into his SUV and took off leaving Darien staring after him, before he dashed into the hotel. He glanced at the card key reading the penthouse suite as he rushed to the elevator.

Elevators took forever. It didn’t help either that he wasn’t the only one on board. Finally, after he was sure he was going to punch the next person who came on, the elevator emptied and he was the only one going up to the penthouse. The elevator stopped, the doors opening and he rushed into the suite. There were three rooms and he rushed to the doorway of the first one on his right. It was empty. The second one was the same. The last one though, made his heart stop.

Laying on the bed, still and pale was Serenity. Darien walked further into the room and to her side. Her chest wasn’t rising. He felt for a pulse at her neck, but there wasn’t one. She was dead. He stepped away with a hand pressed to his mouth. Tears that he refused to let fall were pooling in the corner of his eyes. How had this happened?

It took a few minutes before sanity came back to him and he dialed 911 from his cell phone. When the cops came, they escorted him out of the room to ask him questions. Not that the questions lasted long, a man whispered into the cop’s ear and the cop nodded before telling Darien that he could leave. It wasn’t until a few days later that Darien questioned why. The shock and pain was too much. Even going to her funeral was painful for him. But not as painful as it was for her mother.

He finally was able to meet the wonderful woman who had given birth to the beautiful woman he had known. Her eyes were full of pain and questions. The same questions he probably held. She was grateful to him for everything that he had done for her daughter. Darien didn’t have the heart to tell her that Serenity had done more for him than he had done for her. He moved on to the other people who knew Serenity, but was brought out by an argument that had broken out between two of the guests.

It was Serenity’s friend Andrew and the woman she had been meeting at the arcade that fateful day. Darien moved through the crowd with ease to get to the feuding pair. When he arrived he got bits of their argument.

“If it wasn’t for you - ”

“She knew the risks - ”

Darien frowned but stepped in between the two of them.

“This is not the time, nor the place,” he said with a gruff voice. “C’mon you two, let’s take this elsewhere.” He pulled them apart and led them away from the cemetery and Serenity’s burial plot. As soon as they were a good distance away from the guests, he turned to Andrew and the woman.

“Now, what is this about?” He asked.

“It’s because of Haruka that Serenity is dead!” Andrew exclaimed, fury radiating off him in waves. Darien turned to the woman named Haruka with a question in his eyes.

“What is he talking about?”

The woman grumbled and cast dirty looks at the sandy-blonde man standing behind him. “Look, I don’t even know who you are, so I’m not going to tell you.”

That made Darien angry. “I was Serenity’s employer – she worked for me for over a year.”

Understanding dawned on the woman’s face. “Oh. So _you’re_ Darien. She talked a lot about you when we talked.”

“I wish I could say the same about you.”

“Right,” she cleared her throat. “I’m not sure how much Serenity told you about what was going on in her life, but she was having some money problems because of her mom’s cancer.”

Andrew paled. “Sere’s mom had cancer?”

Haruka nodded. “Yeah, it was stage three and really bad. The doctor’s at first thought that she wasn’t going to make it, but then they realized that if she got the tumor out of her brain after some chemo, she would be all right. So, Ilene started on the treatments. Well, they were really expensive, and they wouldn’t do the surgery unless they were paid first, so Serenity needed to find the money. She dropped out of school, hoping that would help with the payments, but it wasn’t helping.

“My significant other Michelle knew Serenity from school and she pointed her out to me while we were out on the town a few months ago. She had promise, so I approached her with a proposal and she accepted.”

“What was this proposal?” Darien asked.

“Let’s see…” she frowned. “How can I explain this without giving away too much?” She sighed. “I’m part of an organization who get called in when a situation or a person gets out of hand. And our ‘clients’ pay us handsomely for taking care of their problems without anyone noticing.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Darien replied as he exchanged looks with Andrew who looked rather confused as well. “Are you saying that Serenity was part of this organization?”

“Yes,” Haruka nodded. “I hired her, only until she had enough money to pay off her mom’s surgery and chemo treatments. That was supposed to be the deal. But…” she sighed. “Then Diamond Chambers happened.”

“Wait, so what exactly was it that Serenity was doing for you?” Andrew asked.

“Yeah, because when I saw her a few nights ago with Diamond Chambers she was all dressed up like some prostitute. I thought she was sleeping with people for the money.”

“You saw her?” Haruka asked taken aback. “How is it possible that you saw her?”

“Serenity had been acting strange for weeks. I thought it had something to do with the fact that I had asked her out, but then I started following her and found out about her mom. Then I saw her with you, and that same night I saw her leave her apartment all dolled up.”

“Why didn’t you just ask her what was going on?” Andrew asked.

“I tried, but she didn’t give me a direct answer,” Darien replied. “But when I found out about her mom, I never got the chance to ask her about it, because how was I going to explain that? Oh yeah, I was following you around. No,” he shook his head. “That wouldn’t work.”

“So you saw her that night with Diamond Chambers…” she sighed. “Then you know what they’re saying in the coroner’s report is a lie.”

“What are they saying?” Darien asked.

“They’re saying that she committed suicide,” Andrew replied morosely.

“ _What?_ ”

“Her wrists were cut and she bled out,” Haruka explained. “No doubt, Diamond staged it that way.” She said bitterly.

“You still didn’t explain what she was doing with him that night,” Darien said trying to get over the fact that Serenity’s death was being ruled a suicide. It couldn’t be true not after what he had seen that night.

“Serenity was a hired gun. She was there that night to kill Diamond Chambers.”

“Wait, are you telling me that Serenity – the most angelic person in the world was shadowing as a contract killer? An assassin?” Darien asked in disbelief. How crazy of an idea! There was no way that the Serenity he had known could have killed people for money. There was just no way.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

The three lapsed into silence not sure what to say to the other. How do you speak when it was revealed that the person they were there to mourn had been killed on a contract job to kill the other?

“So instead of Serenity killing Diamond, he killed her and made it look like she killed herself,” Andrew said bitterly. “That means Serenity’s job wasn’t finished.”

“Right,” Haruka replied. “Diamond is still on the loose and the contract was never completed. I shouldn’t have sent Serenity after him. She was still too green for a kill like that. But once she heard how much it paid, she wanted to do it.”

“How much did it pay?” Andrew asked.

“Enough that it would have been her last job anyway.”

“I’ll do it,” Andrew said out of the blue. “I’ll finish the job on Diamond.”

“What?!” Haruka and Darien exclaimed in shock.

“I’ll finish the job on Diamond,” he repeated. “Look, I know you’re going to think that this is a crazy idea, but Sere’s mom still needs that surgery and now that she’s dead, how else is she going to pay for it? The life insurance policy Sere had isn’t going to pay because according to the coroner it was a suicide. So what other option is there?”

Darien had walked away at that point. He couldn’t be involved in the planned killing of another man, even though that man was responsible for killing the woman he had… He sighed as he continued to look at her gravestone. The woman he had what? He didn’t love her; it was just impossible to love someone who didn’t give him the time of day. But, yet….

He did. He loved Serenity. He still loved her, even though he had barely known her. But that wasn’t anyone’s fault but his own. He had been so hell bent on asking her out that he didn’t take the time to know her. Didn’t take the time to find out what her life entailed outside of his doctor office. He had been a fool. Maybe if he had taken the time he could have helped her out. If he had, then she wouldn’t have had to turn to a life of crime to pay her mom’s medical bills.

It was all his fault.

The only thing that made his grief bearable was the fact that Andrew had come through on his promise. A few months after her death, Andrew had killed Diamond Chambers in what the media had thought was cold blood. But, while on trial, he revealed his reasons for killing the crooked businessman. The cops had reopened Serenity’s case, and found that the coroner had taken semen fluid from her body at the time of her autopsy. Considering that her cause of death were the cuts on her wrists, they hadn’t looked at it properly. They had disregarded it. But they took another look and matched the fluid to Diamond’s DNA.

They had also searched the nearby area and found the knife that he had used to slit her wrists. Serenity had not committed suicide. She had been killed by Diamond after he had raped her.

Darien closed his eyes as the memories played through his head. It had been three months since her death, but he still wasn’t over it. He wasn’t over her. How could he be? They said the grief was supposed to get easier over time, but it was just getting worse. He walked away from Serenity’s grave and out of the cemetery. It probably didn’t help that he was always there at her grave.

He needed to move on. But he couldn’t.

As he walked down the street he glanced back towards the cemetery and stopped in his tracks. A woman with very familiar blonde hair was standing there staring at him. No, it couldn’t be… He stopped and stared. It was really her. But how? A bus went by, blocking his view. When it passed, the woman was gone. He shook his head and continued on his way. He was seeing her now, that couldn’t be a good sign.

“Darien Shields,” Serenity’s voice said from behind him. He stopped and looked around, but saw nothing.

“You’re losing it, Shields. She’s dead. She’s not here anymore.” He told himself out loud before he continued on his way.

If only he knew how wrong he was…

* * *

 

“Just admit it, Beryl. You are going to lose. Endymion will never be yours.” Serenity kicked her squarely in the chest, sending her sprawling backwards. Before she had the chance to disappear, Serenity rushed her again. Only this time, I was there with her.

I came out of her body and grabbed a hold of Beryl. This shocked her.

“You?” She choked. “I thought I got rid of you too!”

“Looks can be deceiving,” I replied and smirked. “This is for killing me and taking away my one true chance of happiness.”

“No!” She tried to exclaim, but it was too late. She was thrown through the air, and disappeared only I didn’t think that she was going to reappear this time. I stared at the spot where Beryl had been, not believing that it was over. I sighed in relief, knowing that I could finally find my peace that I had been searching for for over five hundred years.

But I was still looking at Serenity, even though I was supposed to have disappeared with Beryl’s final demise. She looked at me with the same expression that was probably on my face.

“Serena,” She whispered. We stared at each other, not sure what to do. We hadn’t planned on this.

“I thought - ”

“So did I,” I cut her off. “But it didn’t happen.”

“Okay, so what does this mean?” Serenity asked, but she didn’t answer me. Instead we both watched as a wall of flame arrived in the room. Well, this was going to be interesting. Endymion was going to see me for the first time in five hundred years. Only when the flame disappeared, and the person emerged, it wasn’t Endymion.

“Sapphire!” We both exclaimed.

“Ssh,” he replied. “I don’t have much time before my great-great-great grandson arrives to retrieve you, Serenity. I’m assuming that Beryl has been defeated?”

“Yes, but I thought with her defeat that I was supposed to disappear too,” I replied.

“That was the original plan, but plans change.”

“So what am I supposed to do now? Stay down here?”

“No, you are no longer needed in hell,” he said stepping towards me. “Fate has another plan for you, Serena. But you have to come with me.”

“Go with you? But…” I trailed off and looked at Serenity.

“Serena, don’t you trust me?”

I hesitated before I approached him. “Okay, let’s go.”

Serenity watched all of this surprised. Not that I blamed her. What exactly did Fate have planned for me? And why did it involve Sapphire? “Wait,” she called out just as he put his hand on my shoulder. “Where are you taking her?”

Sapphire smiled and said, “Fate will be righted,” before we disappeared in a wall of flame.

We arrived back at the cemetery in the land of the living. I looked around me and found that we were standing in front of Serenity’s gravestone. Next to it stood a man I hadn’t seen in five hundred years, but who I also knew wasn’t the man I thought he was. It was Serenity’s friend Andrew, but in another lifetime, he was also my brother.

“Whoa, Sapphire,” he said a look of confusion on his face. “I thought you were sending Serenity _back_ to Hell? What is she doing back here?”

“He did send Serenity back to Hell,” I answered for him. “I’m Serena.”

“Oh!” He exclaimed and gave me a sheepish smile. “It’s nice to finally meet you. But that still doesn’t answer my question. If everything is going dandy in Hell, then why is she still here? I thought she was supposed to move on?”

“That was the original plan,” Sapphire said. “But Fate has other intentions for Serena now.”

I frowned, still not sure that I completely understood what was going on here. I had gone with Sapphire to figure out Fate’s new plan, but I was starting to wonder if what I had done was a smart move or not. What could Fate possibly have planned for me now? I had followed my doppelgangers’ lives for years, and finally I had found Serenity. She was different than the others. But I didn’t know how different until she died before she was supposed to. I thought I was stuck with nowhere to go, until I followed her soul down to Hell, where I ran into my former lover. He was now the Devil and he had chosen Serenity as his mistress.

But even as I watched Serenity figure out that there was something more going on, I knew that she was Endymion’s chance for true happiness. A happiness he should have had, had I not died by Bethany’s hand all those years ago. Now, that they were living their happily ever after, and Bethany/Beryl was gone, I should have moved on. But something was wrong.

“What does Fate want with me now?” I asked a bitter edge to my voice.

“Follow me,” was Sapphire’s only reply. I exchanged looks with Andrew who only shrugged. I sighed and followed him reluctantly. We walked with a quick pace before we ended up on an unfamiliar street. On that street, was an apartment complex.

“Okay, do you want to tell me what we’re doing here?” I asked confused.

“Two things,” Sapphire replied as we walked inside. “The first is that you now own an apartment in the building.” We made our way to the elevator.

“What do you mean that I own an apartment in the building?”

“Just the way it sounds, Serena. You have an apartment in the building, in fact,” he said stopping in front of a door and got out a pair of keys. “This is your apartment.” He opened the door and ushered the two of us inside. The apartment was already furnished with the basic necessities a couch, appliances, and as I opened the refrigerator and cupboards, food and drinks. I closed the door and looked at him with a question in my eyes.

“Why would I need an apartment? I’m dead.”

“That’s the second thing,” Sapphire replied as he sat down on the aforementioned couch. “This is going to take a lot of explaining, so please, have a seat.” He ushered to the chair next to him. I sat down and motioned for him to continue.

“During your time following Serenity, do you remember the man that she worked for?” He asked.

“Darien Shields?” I countered. “But what does he have to do with this?”

“Everything,” he replied. “You see, five hundred years ago, you and Endymion were destined for each other. But Bethany got in the way of that by killing you. When he found your body and me, he thought I had killed you, like you wanted me to tell him. He killed me in turn, and became the Devil fulfilling the other part of his destiny. However, the part that involved you never came to pass, even though Fate tried every few years. Something would always intervene.”

“But how could they try and put the reincarnations of myself together with Endymion’s reincarnations if he had no heirs?” I asked my confusion mounting by the minute.

“Endymion did have an heir,” Sapphire replied. “Bethany was pregnant with his child, that was why she was so angry that he wanted to marry you.”

“So, Endymion’s line still continues?”

“Yes, which is how Darien Shields is involved. He’s Endymion’s many times over great-grandson.”

“Which means that Darien and Serenity were supposed to be together, but because she died…” I felt as if a light bulb went off in my head. That was what he meant by Fate being righted. Since Endymion and Serenity were together, that left only Darien and me, but there was only one problem. “But how can this work out, when I’m dead?”

“That’s what I’m here for,” Sapphire replied. “I can do a spell that will give you back a physical body.”

I sat back in silence as the severity of the situation hit me. Fate wanted me to end up with Darien. To do that I would get to come back to life, but…something nagged on my mind. The same problem that Serenity had with Endymion that had caused her to leave Hell; Darien was in love with Serenity and because we looked so much alike, even if I got Darien to fall for me, who was to say that what he was feeling wasn’t just left over of what he felt for her?

“Serena?” He asked drawing me back to the present.

“You realize that if I agree to this, this is going to be really complicated?” I countered. “I mean, how do we explain to Darien that I look exactly like Serenity? Or hell, even to her mother?”

“Easy. You’re Serenity’s identical twin sister, who has just returned from America after hearing about her sister’s death,” Sapphire explained.

“Well, you just have this all figured out, don’t you?” I scoffed. “How long have you known that this might happen?”

“I’ve had a feeling since I felt your presence,” he explained. “So? Will you do this or not?”

“I don’t really have much of a choice here, do I?” I sighed.

“You always have a choice, Serena. You could say no and finally move on. Or you can say yes, and have the opportunity to be alive again. To live your life and have that love that you died for.”

“Well, when you put it that way…”

“Good,” Sapphire smiled. “I’ll start on the spell right away.”

* * *

 

As Andrew and Sapphire left the apartment, later on that night, he turned to the former Devil and laid into him.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” He exclaimed letting the anger he had let fester for the last few hours come out. “I thought once you let Serenity go back to Hell you were going to move on! Why are you still meddling in these people’s affairs?”

“Because Fate needs to be balanced, if it’s not things in this world could become catastrophic.”

“But why do _you_ need to be the one to help balance out Fate? Why can’t Darien do this on his own?”

“And how would he do this on his own? The love that has been predestined for him died prematurely, the only way that the balance can be restored is with supernatural means. _My_ supernatural means.”

Andrew looked at the man before him with questions in his eyes. This man looked like he had more invested in the coupling than just the balance of Fate. He frowned trying to figure out what else the former Devil had to gain from everything before he froze.

“Ah,” Sapphire said with a smile. “I see you finally figured out what else is going on here.”

“Yes, but it doesn’t make sense…”

“It does, when you think about the years.”

“The years?”

“It’s been over five hundred years since Endymion killed me,” Sapphire said. “And my reign only lasted five hundred years. It is time that Hell has a new king.”


	2. Bad Day Meets Doppleganger

The following morning, I stared at the contents of my new closet trying to figure out what to wear. Things had been simpler back when I was alive, with a corset and a dress. But here, there were so many options to choose from! The colors ranged from all different sides of the rainbow, the fabrics ranged from cashmere to simple cotton, and not to mention the pants! It still floored me to think that women were allowed to wear pants in this age. And some even wore the shortest of skirts. If they had worn them in my time…

I shook my head to clear the thought. This was one of the adjustments that I had to make. Even though I had watched many different eras go by, I still couldn’t get out of the one I had lived in. I was going to have to change that. I was a woman living in the twenty-first century where women wore pants and skirts that barely covered anything. Oh man, I was _definitely_ in over my head.

I grabbed a pair of jeans, and a random long sleeved t-shirt that was pink. These items of clothing looked comfortable to wear for what I was only imagining would be a long day. Sapphire, Andrew and I were going over to Serenity’s mother’s home. If this plan of Sapphire’s had any hope of working, she needed to be included in on it. I wasn’t really looking forward to talking with her, knowing that all she was going to see was her daughter, even though I wasn’t. But I had to get used to that too. That was the problem of being a doppelganger.

I zipped up the zipper of my jeans and pulled the pink shirt over the waist before I went to the vanity mirror and tried to tame my ridiculously long hair. As I looked at my reflection I couldn’t help but stare. I actually had a reflection for the first time in years. Would the wonders ever cease? I picked up the brush and ran it through my hair, wondering how Serenity had kept hers so long without wanting to cut every last inch off.

I sighed and put down the brush, turning to leave just as a knock sounded at my door. Great. My two chaperones were here. Let the long and complicated day begin.  

* * *

It was weird traveling with two people who no one else could see. I had to be careful not to talk too loudly or be seen talking at all, or else people thought I was slightly mental. Not that I could really blame them. It was starting to feel like I was slightly mental.

“Serenity’s mom loves to cook,” Andrew said to me from the left. “Especially anything to do with breakfast. Serenity loved her double chocolate chip pancakes.” It had been like this for the last half hour. Andrew was trying to inform me about who Ilene was, not that I really needed the information. I had followed Serenity around long enough to know most things about her mother. But I tried not to roll my eyes at the information. He was only trying to help.

We got off the bus and walked down the street towards Ilene’s home. I was trying to prepare myself for what was going to happen next. But I’m not sure if there was a way to prepare. Ilene was probably going to kick me off her porch as soon as she saw me. Either that or she was going to burst into tears or she was going to call the police. Neither of these options was a good one. I sighed before I knocked on the door, waiting as I heard footsteps approaching from the other side.

“Yes, how can I - ” the door swung open and the woman on the other side froze, her mouth slightly agape. I didn’t know what to say, so I just stood there, staring at her as she stared at me.

“Serenity?” She whispered unsure. “Serenity? No, it can’t be…you’re supposed to be dead.”

“I’m not Serenity,” I said.

“But then why do you look like her? Or am I finally losing my mind?”

“It’s a long story, but you’re not losing your mind, I promise you that,” I sighed. “Can I come in?”

“I’m not sure,” she replied her hand on the door. “If you’re not Serenity why should I trust you?”

“Because my story has to deal with Serenity.”      

* * *

My response had been the golden ticket. She let me inside her house and offered me a seat. She made herself comfortable, and I started to tell my tale. At points when she didn’t believe me, Sapphire would appear and her hand came to her mouth as she sat there in shock. The shock really set in when I told her about her daughter and her friend. She was still sitting there in shock, even though my tale had ended and my plan somewhat revealed to her. Her gaze went from me, to Sapphire, to Andrew before going back again.

I exchanged looks with the two men, before whispering, “I told you this was a bad idea.”

“Hang on,” Andrew replied. “Give her a few minutes. It’s a lot of information to take in.”

I scoffed and was about to say something back, when Ilene dropped her hand and leaned forward staring very intently at me. I returned her gaze head on. This was going to be interesting.

“So, my Serenity, is in Hell with his,” she pointed at Sapphire. “Great-great-great grandson, who also happens to be the Devil? And they are ruling together? They’re in love?”

“Yes,” I said simply.

“And you,” she pointed to me. “You’re a doppelganger?”

“Well, not exactly. I’m the original. Serenity is my doppelganger.”

“Right,” she said and sat back. “Just add in two hot brother vampires fighting over you and I’d be in a really bad teen drama on the CW.” She laughed bitterly.

I raised my eyebrows and looked at Andrew, who only shook his head with a smile on his face. Apparently, he got that reference, while Sapphire and I did not.

“Well, I’m not sure about the vampires, but how about another doppelganger who is great grandson many times over of the king of Hell?” Andrew asked.

Ilene stopped laughing and sat up. “Who?”

“Darien Shields,” I replied automatically.

“No,” she shook her head. “You’re not serious. This is some sort of sick morbid joke you’re trying to put over on me.”

“Ilene,” Sapphire said his voice soft. “We’re not trying to put over a joke on you. Darien Shields is a descendent of Endymion’s. Your daughter Serenity and Darien were supposed to end up together, but because of her premature death, Fate found another way for her to be happy. She is now in Hell and madly in love with Endymion. However, Fate is still not in balance. I think, for it to be, Darien and Serena,” he motioned to me. “Need to meet and fall in love.”

“And what do you need for me?” She asked. “Why tell me all of this?”

“Other than to give you peace of mind about your daughter’s afterlife?” I asked. “We need your help in implementing this plan.”

“What plan is that?”

I sighed, here came the next hard part. “I’m going to try and win Darien’s heart, but to do that I need a reasonable explanation as to why I look so much like Serenity did. The reasoning we came up with is that Serenity and I were identical twins.”

“And why are you here now? Why didn’t you come to the funeral four months ago?” Ilene asked.

“Because I was in America and I was just able to come back.”

“Sounds like a reasonable explanation to me.” Ilene leaned forward some more and looked at me again. “Except for one thing. Darien, Andrew and I talked a lot after my daughter’s death. I never once mentioned having another child, and Serenity probably didn’t either. How are you going to cover for that?”

“I was estranged from the family because I wanted to go live in the States,” I replied automatically and blinked. That lie had come so easily to my lips.

“Good,” Ilene nodded. “Add in that you left just after your father died and you actually have a good reason as to why no one has mentioned you ever.”

“Does that mean you’re going to help me?”

“Yes, because I don’t really have much of a choice,” she replied. “But I know that Serenity would want me to help you. So I’m doing this for her.”

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“Don’t thank me yet, dear. We’re going to put that back story of yours to a test real fast here.” The doorbell rang. “Because that’s Darien.”      

* * *

Darien Shields was having a bad day. It started with the fact that he woke up late. Something that he usually didn’t do and hadn’t done in…well, two days, but really who was counting? The second reason why his day was bad was because he also woke up with a hangover. That would teach him to go out drinking with his old college buddies on a Monday night. The third reason his day was bad, was that he realized that it was November – the time of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and he was _seriously_ behind on his word count even though it was only day two. It didn’t help either that he didn’t have a plot to work off of. Not that it really mattered. He had other things on his mind.

One of which lead to reason number four why his day was horrible. He had to go see Serenity’s mother. Ever since her daughter’s death and successful surgery, Darien had taken it upon himself to go see her every few weeks to make sure she was doing all right. She should have gone to a regular doctor, but he figured it was the least he could do for Serenity. He just hated going to see her mother though because it brought up so many memories of Serenity. It didn’t help either that Mrs. Anderson talked constantly about her daughter. He sighed and put his head on the shower wall as the cold water poured over him easing his hangover.

It was hard to move on when he couldn’t get the girl out of his mind. He didn’t think he’d ever would. He would forever be the lonely bachelor. He couldn’t help but smile as a memory went through his mind of Serenity who teased him about becoming a lonely bachelor just a month after starting work. He sighed and turned off the water. There his mind went again thinking about her. This was never going to work.

His head was still in the clouds when he made it down to the lobby of his apartment complex, that’s why when he saw a familiar woman he just continued on his way. Until the hair finally registered in his mind, snapping him out of his reverie. _Serenity?_ He thought to himself as he stopped in the middle of the lobby. There weren’t many people in the lobby that morning and he was able to catch a full view of the back of the woman who he thought was Serenity. She had the same hair and the same body type… But she was supposed to be dead!

Darien didn’t know what possessed him, but he followed the woman out onto the street and down the sidewalk towards the bus stop. He stopped a few feet away, so as not to look too suspicious and watched the woman, still not able to see her face. As the bus rumbled up the street to stop, he finally realized what he was doing. He was stalking an innocent woman because she had the same hair as the woman he’d been mourning for four months. He turned swiftly away and cursed himself for doing such a thing. This was definitely not healthy. Just add it to the growing list of why his day was turning out to be one of the worst ever, he thought bitterly and started towards his office. He had a few appointments before he had to go to Mrs. Anderson’s house that afternoon.   

* * *

The three of us sat there in shock as the knocking on the door continued. Darien Shields was at the door. The thought couldn’t help but repeat itself over and over again in my head. _Darien Shields was at the door. DARIEN SHIELDS!_ What was he doing here? Ilene got up in the middle of my mental freak out to answer the door and I sat there rigid as a stone. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. I wasn’t supposed to be coming face to face with _him_ until I was damn ready to. Not on the first day that I came back to life. I sent a panicked look to Andrew and Sapphire who only looked at me with wide eyes of their own before they disappeared.

 _Helpful guys, real helpful_ , I scoffed in my head. I tried not to have my glance stray to the door, but I felt the anxiety rise in my chest knowing that he would be walking through the door at any moment.

“It’s so nice of you to keep doing this,” Ilene’s voice drifted into the hallway and I sat up straighter.

“I told you, Mrs. Anderson, it’s not a problem,” a voice I knew really well answered her. My heart started to beat really fast in my chest. Even though I had been following Serenity and had heard Darien’s voice and Endymion’s, it still felt so different. This time he would actually see me. I ran my hand over my jeans, getting rid of imaginary dust and looked up as Ilene and Darien walked into the room. I saw the man visibly stiffen and I couldn’t help but stare.

I forgot how much he looked like Endymion. The hair, the eyes, the chin…I bit my lip. _Oh my_ …

* * *

 _Holy shit. Holy shit. HOLY SHIT!_ Darien felt like his eyes had busted out of his head. This was not what he had been expecting when he had come to check on Mrs. Anderson that afternoon. It was the woman he had stalked to the bus stop earlier in the day. She was sitting in Mrs. Anderson’s sitting room. She looked _exactly_ like Serenity. _What. The. Hell._ It had to be a ghost. That was the only reasonable explanation. This was a ghost. She wasn’t real. Which brought up a whole different set of problems, but at least if she was a ghost, that could be dealt with. If she wasn’t…

He was officially losing his mind.   

* * *

Ilene sensing the tension between us began the introductions.

“Oh, Darien,” she said bringing him out of his daze. “This is my other daughter, Serena. Serena this was Serenity’s boss Doctor Darien Shields. He’s here to make sure I’m doing all right after my surgery.”

My brain finally started working again. That was why Darien was here; Ilene had had brain surgery two months after Serenity’s death to remove the tumor that was growing there. Of course, Darien would come and check on her, for Serenity’s sake. I stood up, walking towards him with my hand outstretched.

“It’s nice to meet you, Dr. Shields,” I said trying to keep my voice level.

* * *

He took her hand in his and shook it, trying not to let out a breath of relief. So he wasn’t going insane, but how come he didn’t know that Mrs. Anderson had another daughter? Where had she been for the last four months? And why did she look so much like Serenity?

“It’s nice to meet you too, Serena,” he said after a pause. He let go of her hand, even though he didn’t want to. “I didn’t know Serenity had a sister.”

“Yes, Serena and Serenity were identical twins,” Mrs. Anderson explained. “After their father’s death, Serena wanted to go study abroad in the States. We thought it was too soon after such a tragedy for the family to be separated, but she refused to stay and went off on her own. We haven’t seen her since.”

“Then I heard about Serenity’s death and tried to come home, but there were some paperwork issues, that they didn’t get straightened out until a few days ago,” Serena continued on the story. Darien could only nod. This whole situation was just so weird. Why hadn’t Serenity mentioned her sister? And even though they were identical twins, weren’t there supposed to be a few differences between the two? Because if there were, he couldn’t see them, Serena looked too much like her sister.

“Darien? Should we continue on with the check up?” Mrs. Anderson asked bringing him out of his thoughts. He snapped back and nodded his head ushering for her to sit down on the couch.

“Have you been having any problems with headaches?” He asked as he gently touched her skull.

“No,” she replied.

“Any problems with pain around the site of the cut?”

“No.”

He nodded. “Okay, you seem to be recovering well from the surgery, but I should recommend that you go see a doctor and get another MRI done, just to make sure the growth hasn’t come back.”

“Could you recommend someone?” Mrs. Anderson asked.

“Of course,” he said and went into his wallet to take out a card. He handed her a card with an old friend’s name on it. “This is Taiki’s business card, he’s a neurologist that I went to medical school with, just tell him I sent you and he should treat you really well.”

“Thank you,” Mrs. Anderson said.

“You’re welcome. I should get back to the office now.” He got up to leave.

“Business is well?”

“Yeah, just been a little busy since I still don’t have a secretary.”

“You haven’t hired anyone yet?” Mrs. Anderson asked a light going off in her eyes as she looked to a person behind him.

“No, I haven’t had the time. With flu season coming up, I’m so busy.”

“Well…” Ilene’s eyes flashed with something mischievous. I frowned. What was she planning? “Why don’t you hire Serena temporarily? Just to get you through the flu season?”

I saw Darien’s back stiffen at the idea. I didn’t care for it too much myself. I knew nothing about being a secretary. This century was still too new to me. And if I went to go work for him, then he wouldn’t be able to separate me from Serenity. That and he would figure it out pretty quickly that something was going on.

“Well, um…” he turned around and faced me. His eyes searching my own. “You have any secretarial experience?”

“Of course, she does,” Ilene said. “Who else do you think Serenity learned it from?” I shot her a nasty look.

“Can you start right now?”

“Sure,” I said automatically and cursed myself. Damn brain, betraying me without thinking first.

“Great,” Darien turned back to Ilene. “Now you give Taiki a call, and get that MRI. I’ll see you soon. Serena, why don’t you come with me?” He walked out of the room and I followed giving Ilene a dirty look. She only smiled and waved. Great, now not only was I stuck with Darien way before I wanted to be stuck with him, but my ‘mother’ was playing matchmaker. Fantastic.

Once we got outside and the front door closed behind us, Darien turned to me with anger in his eyes. I took a hesitant step back not understanding why he was so angry. We had just met, what the hell could I have done in the fifteen minutes we knew each other?

“I don’t know who you think you are,” he said his voice stern and hard. “But, you leave this poor woman alone. She has been through enough over the last few months, but to also be conned by a con woman, I just won’t stand for it. So you get the hell out of here and hope to God that I don’t see you hanging around here again, or else I will make sure you’ll regret it.”

I took another step back, my mouth popping open in shock. Was he _seriously_ accusing me of being a con artist? I was no freaking con artist! Sure I wasn’t Serenity’s sister, but I was still related to her. And just like that everything that had ever happened to me since I had been killed finally snapped and my anger broke through.

“ _You_ asshole,” I seethed. “Who the hell do you think you are coming around here accusing people of being a con artist when you’ve barely known this family for five minutes? My sister is _dead_ , my mother almost died because of cancer, we are in a time of mourning, and you’re accusing me of being a con artist just because you’ve never heard head or tail of me? Every family has its secrets, and I just happen to be the one for this family. So sue me or my mother for not telling a complete stranger about ours.” I heaved heavily, the anger leaving my system. Whoa, talk about a head rush. I guess I shouldn’t have kept a lot of things in over the last half millennium.

* * *

Darien took a few steps back of his own after her rant. _Well, that had backfired_ , he thought to himself. She had really just proven to him that she was really related to Serenity because she had a temper of her own too, and hell…maybe hers was mild in comparison to Serena’s. She looked about ready to cut his dick off. He smiled a small smile and then couldn’t take it anymore. He let out a long bout of laughter. The absurdity of the day finally made him snap. Serena looked at him like he had lost his mind, and he was really starting to believe that he had.

“I’m sorry,” he spluttered. “I hadn’t meant to jump down your throat like that, but…it was a test.”

“A test?” She asked confused. “What kind of test?”

“Serenity had a temper on her,” he explained. “If you were really her sister you would have acted pissed off at even the smallest notion that you weren’t. So, when you laid into me there, I knew you were definitely related to Serenity.” He wiped the tears out of his eyes.

She smiled at him and he stood back frozen. _Whoa,_ he thought to himself. Her smile was just as disarming as… _Stop it_. He thought again. Just because she was related to Serenity and looked like her doesn’t mean that she was her sister. She was not her sister’s replacement. She was her own person. Still…that smile could disarm even the gayest of men.

“I’m sorry too,” she said softly. “I shouldn’t have let my temper get away from me like that. It’s just been a rough day, you know? Between customs and dealing with my mom…” she sighed. “Anyway, I’m sorry for yelling at you, you were just protecting my mom.”

“It’s okay,” he said. “Well, let’s get you over to the office.” He opened the door to his car for her to get in and she smiled at him gratefully before she slid in.

* * *

Andrew and Sapphire stood on Serenity’s mother’s lawn and watched as Darien and Serena drove off. They exchanged looks and tried not to smile. The argument that had erupted between the two of them was quite comical to watch. Sapphire knew that things were going to be okay because he had seen the first time that Endymion and Serenity had met while down in Hell. Their argument was quite comical too. There were something about these two, no matter what lifetime they were in, they always argued before they fell for each other.

“Well, that could have gone better,” Andrew said to him. “How are those two ever going to fall for each other if they’re always arguing? And did you see his face? He’s confusing her with Serenity. She’s going to have the same problem that Serenity had with Endymion.”

“She’ll figure it out,” Sapphire said. “Just like Serenity did.”


	3. After Hour Pleasures

He showed me his office. He showed me the desk that I would be working at. He showed me how to access the files on the computer that I would need to make appointments, billing, and everything else I would need to access while I was his secretary. He explained what was to be expected of me. Then he asked me out for dinner.

I tried to blink away my surprise, but whoa. Did he ever move fast? I think he saw the surprise in my eyes because he backed up and explained.

“Not like a date, or anything,” he said and my heart stopped in disappointment. “But as friends. I feel like I should know you a little before you start work for me. Think of it more as an informal interview.”

I smiled at that. Okay, so it wasn’t a date, but at least it was dinner. It was a start, right? “Sure, why not?” I agreed with ease.

“Great,” he said. “I know this great Italian place.” He opened the door for me and ushered me out the door of his office before locking up for the night. He placed his hand on the small of my back and I felt my heart beat pick up again. Holy crap, how could it possibly be that my heart was beating this fast after just one day with this man? I didn’t know him that well, and yet…I wanted him desperately. Maybe Fate did in fact know what they were doing by pressing the two of us together. I wondered if it was only just me that was feeling this way. Then again, we _had_ only just met, so I doubted that he felt what I was feeling…       

* * *

Darien tried to keep his breathing even, but his heart was pounding at a hundred miles an hour, or so it felt like. The feel of his skin on hers, even through the fabric of her shirt, was causing his heart to race. Why was he feeling this way? He had just met this girl and he was already feeling so protective of her and…well, he _wanted_ her and it wasn’t because she looked like Serenity. No, there was something else about her… He sighed, that’s why he had accidently asked her out a few minutes ago. He was acting on feeling, not logical thought. The only thing Darien knew was that he didn’t want to be parted from Serena just yet. That’s why he had asked her out.

But she looked shocked when he had, and that’s why he had amended that they could go only as friends, as a get to know you dinner. He was being stupid. It was too soon for him to be asking Serenity’s sister out on a date anyway. He was really being stupid. Serena was probably still mourning the death of her sister and she probably had a boyfriend back in the States. He shouldn’t make presumptions that she was single and in the market for a man.

But the way that she had looked at him…he shook his head. He just needed to concentrate on getting through this dinner. Then he could escort her home, and then he could go home and go to bed and realize that this was all a dream. Hopefully.       

* * *

We sat down at a fancy table and I hesitatingly opened the menu. This was still so new and the prices were insanely expensive. I ran my eyes over the menu and the different entrée names. It all sounded so good, but still these prices. I mentally calculated what I could afford with the money that I had with me and frowned. I could maybe afford a salad. Maybe.

Darien seemed to read my mind, “Order anything you want, it’s on me.”

“No, you don’t have to do that,” I protested even though my eyes lingered on a pasta cabanara that sounded to die for.

“Please,” he said waving away my protests. “I invited you out to eat, it’s the least I can do. Think of it as a welcome back to the city dinner.”

“But I thought it was also a informal interview dinner, too?” I countered keeping my voice light and humorous. He smiled at my little joke. “Well, thank you.” He nodded and continued to peruse the menu.

The waiter came by and took our drink orders. I just ordered water, I wasn’t sure what my alcohol tolerance was yet and I wasn’t about to find that out with Darien sitting right across from me shooting me looks that screamed possibility. He ordered a glass of red wine.

“You don’t look like a wine person,” I commented as the waiter walked away to get our drinks.

“I’m usually not,” he said. “But this place always has a great red that I can never resist when I come in.” I tried not to linger on the way that he said that he couldn’t resist, because it was getting harder by the minute for me to resist _him_. I blinked hard and continued looking at my menu, just so I didn’t have to look at him. He was making my head spin, which wasn’t good considering how much I needed to keep my thoughts clear while I was around him.

The waiter came back and placed our drinks in front of us. He brought out his pad and asked for our orders. I ordered the pasta cabanara while Darien ordered the spaghetti Bolognese. Something I hadn’t figured him for either, but I decided not to say anything about it.

“So,” Darien said after the waiter had taken our menus and walked away, promising to be back with a breadbasket. “Who is Serena Anderson?”

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “I’m still trying to figure that out for myself.”

“Well, tell me what you’ve figured out so far.”

I thought long and hard about how I should answer this question. What sort of tale should I tell him that he would believe about myself? Serena was a college student so…

“Okay, I’m a twenty-four year old who was four credits away from being a sociology major before she got the call that changed her life,” I said being a little over dramatic.

He caught on, “That sounds like something I would write.”

“You write?” I asked amazed.

“Sometimes,” he shrugged. “I always liked to read when I was a kid, still do, and sometimes these stories would just come into my brain and I had to write them down. Sometimes when I’m having a hard time with a patient’s case I write just to get away. It’s something I’m in control of, you know?”

“Yeah, I get it,” I replied looking at him in a new light. “It’s like, while everything else is going out of control in your life, you can write yourself a world where everything goes the way you want for once.”

“Yep. Exactly.”

“Did you ever tell my sister that?” I asked.

“No,” Darien sat back taking a sip from his glass of wine. “Serenity and I…well, she made it pretty clear that she wanted to keep her professional life and her personal one separate. So I never got the chance to tell her. What about you? Were you close with Serenity?”

“We were when we were kids,” I said coming up with a response on the spot. “But things changed in high school. We started to roll with different crowds and we just drifted apart. It got really bad; we used to fight at least twice a day. We couldn’t stand the sight of each other. Than our father died and well, she just stopped talking to me altogether. My mom did too, I think it was just because they had been so close to him, but I don’t know…” I trailed off losing my train of thought. I should really be afraid that I was able to lie so easily, right? This kind of thing shouldn’t be normal, but then again this situation wasn’t normal.

“So that’s why you went off to the States?” Darien asked.

“Mostly yes. I also got accepted into a really good program, one that I just couldn’t say no to even though we couldn’t afford it.”

“Which is why your mother and sister stopped talking to you when you left.”

“It’s almost like you can read my mind,” I said with a smile.

“Oh, trust me,” he said his voice deepening. “I wish I could read your mind, Serena Anderson. You don’t know how much I want to know what you’re thinking about.”

My breath caught and the glass of water that I had been raising to my lips stopped halfway there as I looked at the man who sat across from me. His usual azure blue eyes had darkened to black like Endymion’s used to do when he was aroused and lusting… I felt my cheeks flame at the thought of it. How had this innocent dinner turned into such a flirtation? Was it because he was drinking? I glanced at his glass. No, it couldn’t be it. His wine was barely touched. So, why was he flirting?

“Trust me, Darien Shields,” I said my voice strong even though I was having a mental breakdown on the inside. “You don’t want to know what I’m thinking about.”      

* * *

Darien blinked and tried to cool himself off. For some reason, when she had smiled at him while talking about why she had left for the States, it was almost like he had been possessed. He lost control of himself and he started flirting with her. He thought it had something to do with the wine he was drinking, but he had barely touched his glass. Was it that he was finally losing his mind? Or was it that he just had lost control of his emotions? Of his lust that he was feeling for the woman who sat in front of him?

But she was wrong about one thing; he _did_ want to know what she was thinking about. Even though he could hazard a guess that it was the same thing he was thinking about with her. He was thinking about her blonde hair and her pale skin and how it would look spread out on his dark satin sheets that covered his bed back at his apartment. Her naked flesh on his sheets, beneath him as he drove into her over and over again. _Whoa_. He thought to himself and felt tightness in his pants. What the hell was he doing thinking about _that_?

He looked across the table, and saw Serena looking back at him, her lower lip between her teeth and her cheeks flushed. _Oh,_ _don’t do that,_ he mentally moaned. It was hard enough to consider just being friends with her, but when she looked like _that_ …he didn’t know how much longer he would be able to just sit there talking to her as if nothing was wrong. When it obviously was. He was lusting after his new secretary. Who was the sister of his previous one who he had fallen in love with. Shit. He took his glass of wine and sipped down a mouthful, wishing that it were something a little bit stronger.

“Is everything all right, Darien?” She asked him.

“Yes,” he said his voice strangled, even though he knew that it wasn’t. It wasn’t okay at all.

* * *

I lay in bed for hours after Darien had taken me home. It was an awkward situation when we found out that we lived in the same apartment building. _Thanks for that Sapphire,_ I thought to myself. But he had just smiled as if nothing was wrong, even though I could tell that something was. It had happened while we were talking about my reason for leaving. He had gotten a weird look after he flirted with me. Well, a few weird looks. One I knew well, the one of lust. The same one that I returned. But the other…that one made me pause. It was regret. But why would he regret feeling those things for me? I wanted him to! That was the whole reason I was here!

Unless…oh dear. I sat up in bed realization finally dawning on me. He had the same problem that Serenity had had with Endymion a few days ago. She hadn’t been comfortable with Endymion falling in love with her because she thought he was only in love with her because she looked like me. What if Darien was having the same problem? What if the reason Darien had felt regret was because he had been in love with Serenity and now he was feeling lust for me her ‘sister?’ He probably thought that couldn’t be right. If only he knew… I sighed and leaned back onto the bed my thoughts wandering.

The way he had looked though before that look of regret. The black eyes that were clouded with lust as he thought of all the things he wanted to do to me. The things that I wanted to do with him. My breath caught in my throat and my hands crushed my sheets as a feeling washed over me that I hadn’t felt before. My body felt like it was burning, my breasts heavier than they should be. God, was this how it felt to be horny? I squeezed my legs together to ease the tension, but it didn’t do anything as I closed my eyes and pictured Darien above me running his fingers over my body. Touching my breasts, his fingers trailing down to…

 _Oh_ , I hissed as my own fingers touched myself down there. My finger slipped within myself and moved it slowly in deeper and then out again. _Oh…_ I flexed my hips up to meet my own finger. _This_ …

Someone knocking on my door interrupted my self-satisfaction.    

* * *

Darien closed his eyes with a glass full of liquid pressed to his brow. This day had been insanity. He couldn’t believe that Serenity had a sister. He couldn’t believe that he was lusting over that sister. In fact, he was still feeling the effects of their dinner. God, if he had been smart he would have invited her back to his apartment, just a few floors up from her own, and he could have ended this problem. But no, that wouldn’t be right. She was Serenity’s sister. He couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t be right…

Would it? His brain thought to himself. Why wouldn’t it be right? It wasn’t like he had actually acted on the feelings he had had for Serenity back when she was alive. But, oh, how he wanted to, it was just that she hadn’t even given him a chance. She had wanted to keep her professional life separate from her personal one. A reason he now understood, but still… _Oh, Serenity, what would you want me to do?_ He thought to himself as he got up to pour himself another glass of brandy. This probably wasn’t smart, since he did still have work tomorrow and patients to see, but he had no other option to relieve himself of this tension.

Well, he _did_ , but it really wasn’t an option he should consider. Not if he knew what was good for him. As he closed his eyes to savor the burn of his drink, he saw flashes of blonde hair, those blue eyes that just reflected the daytime sky and could easily read into his dark soul. Her plump limps opening to let out a gasp of pleasure. He squeezed his hand until the glass shattered, causing bits and pieces of it to scatter across his floor. Shards of the glass embedded themselves in his hand, crimson blood already swelling around the open wounds.

Damn it, this was madness. He needed to end this _now_. His morals be damned. He walked across his apartment to the front door, opening it quickly and walking into the hall. He shut the door behind him, not even bothering to lock it, before he stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for Serena’s floor.

* * *

 _Don’t open it, don’t open it_ , I repeated the phrase to myself like a mantra. I still lay in my bed, my heart pounding, my hair plastered to the back of my neck by sweat. I shouldn’t open the door. I should just continue to lay here, pretend that I’m asleep, because whoever is on the other side of the door shouldn’t be calling on me at; I peered at the clock, two in the morning. But yet, who could it possibly be on the other side of the door? It couldn’t be Darien, the chances of that were just so slim; pigs had a better chance of flying as the expression goes.

Time seemed to slip by slowly, as I lay there my breathing rapid to keep in time with the pounding of my heart. Just as I thought that whoever had knocked finally had given up. Another knock sounded on my door. This time I didn’t think, I just jumped out of bed, almost tripping in my haste, and flew to the door. I looked in the peephole and it was in fact Darien.

I unlocked the door and opened it to find him staring a grim smile on his face. He pushed his hair out of his face. “I thought you were asleep,” he said his voice husky. “I was about to give up.”

“Sorry, heavy sleeper,” I replied instantaneously. “Is there something that I can help you with?” As soon as the words left my mouth I wanted to slap them back in. Could he hear the double meaning behind my words? Of course he could, I thought as I watched him take in my whole appearance with greedy lusty eyes. I didn’t know what he was staring at; it was only the clothes that I slept in. …Which happened to be a white tank top with no bra. _Oh shit_ …I thought to myself. No wonder he was staring at me with those eyes.

“Maybe,” he finally replied, his voice even huskier than it had been before, if _that_ was even possible. “But I think I can help you out with something too.” My breath caught in my throat, as he raised a hand to do what with, I didn’t know, because as he was lifting that hand a drop of red dripped down from the same hand. I frowned and stepped forward. Capturing his hand within my own to take another glance. His hand was bleeding profusely from cuts that looked like they had glass in them.

“Darien,” I said finally getting my voice back. “You’re bleeding.”

He looked down and seemed almost amused. “Well, would you look at that?” He murmured. I stared at him in wonder. Did he cut himself and totally forget? But how could he do that when he was a doctor? What could have possibly… _oh_ , I thought as I watched his eyes go from his hand to mine and then to my face. _Right_. I shook my head and pulled him inside.

“I’d better take care of that,” I said trying not to get his hopes up, even though I knew it was also for myself. This couldn’t be good letting another guy into my apartment, the one I had been fantasizing about just a few minutes earlier. I kept my sigh internal as I had him sit down on one of my couches, while I went to get a towel so he wouldn’t bleed all over the carpet.

I handed it to him and he placed it over his wounded hand. “I’ll be right back,” I said and went towards my room. I slipped on a sweat jacket from my closet, being conscious of the tank top and the no bra situation. Then I went to the bathroom and gathered up a pair of tweezers, antiseptic, gauze and Band-Aids. Then I went back to the kitchen for a small glass dish with water to put the shards of glass in.

When I arrived back in the sitting room. Darien stared at me, a look of shock on his face. I tried to ignore it, but as I began taking out the glass shards, I couldn’t help but ask. “What’s with the look?”

“I’m just amazed,” he replied. “You seem to know more about the medical field than Serenity did.” I tried not to hold my smile back at that, but I didn’t succeed. This time it was his turn to ask, “What’s with the smile?”

“Oh, you know how they say with identical twins you can’t tell them apart by their looks, but by their personalities?” I asked coming up again with another story on the spot. “Well, that was Serenity. She couldn’t stand anything to do with the medical field – she had a phobia of blood. She would always get so sick by just the sight of it. But with me, it was nothing.”

“A fear of blood and yet, she became a contract killer,” Darien dead panned. “Seems logical.”

The mood was brought down instantly. “Yeah, well. Desperate times called for desperate measures. I Just wish that she had called me to help her. I would have too, even though we weren’t speaking.”

“Then why didn’t she call you if she was really that desperate?”

“That’s easy,” I replied. “In that, Serenity and I are the same. We don’t like to ask for help. We like to take care of ourselves, solve our own problems.”

“Stupid personality trait,” he murmured as I continued to work on his hand. “She had so many people around her that would have helped her if she had only asked.”

“And you were one of them, weren’t you?” I asked taking out the last shard of glass.

“Yeah,” he said and sat back with his eyes closed. “I would have done anything for her. I even gave her the secretary job even though I had more qualified candidates for the position. There was just something about her that I couldn’t say no to.” I let the conversation seep into silence as I continued my work. Thankfully, the cuts on his hand weren’t that deep and once I cleaned them with antiseptic and placed some band-aids on them, his hand didn’t look as mangled. If anything it looked like he had just gotten into a fight with a cat.

“There, you’re all set,” I said as I took all my supplies with me into the kitchen. I threw out the bloodied gauze and took the dish with the glass shards towards the counter. I searched for a canister to put the shards in before throwing them out, when I felt him come up behind me. I turned around and he came up and took the dish from my hand and placed it on the counter top. He leaned his head down and captured his lips with my own.

I tried not to gasp, but failed completely. The heat I had felt while touching him earlier was nothing compared to this. My heartbeat picked up again for the umpteenth time that day, and my breathing became ragged. It didn’t help that because of my gasp, Darien was able to thrust his tongue into my mouth. _Oh_ … this was absolute heaven. He pulled back after a minute, his breathing just as ragged as my own. He stepped away from me, to give me room or to give himself room, I didn’t know, all I knew was that the feelings I had had before he had come to my door reignited in my blood.

“Sorry,” he said after he got his breathing back to normal. “I’ve been wanting to do that since you yelled at me on your mother’s front lawn this afternoon.”

“Don’t be,” I murmured trying to get my breathing back to normal too. It didn’t help that I could feel his eyes on me. I struggled with trying to keep my feelings under control. It was scary how just one kiss could make me feel like I was spiraling out of control. How was it he could act like it hadn’t affected him? I peered at him from under my eyelashes and instantly lost the breath in my lungs.

I had been wrong. He was spiraling too; I could see it in his gaze. Those deep azure blue eyes were black again. And his sweat pants… _Oh dear…_ I tried to avert my gaze, but couldn’t help but stare. Was he really that turned on because of me? Unbelievable.

“Why did you come over?” I asked, this time looking at him head on.

He seemed startled by my question. “Honestly? Because I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

“And your hand? How did that happen?”

“Sexual tension,” he replied his eyes darkening even more. “Because I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Even though I know I shouldn’t…” He trailed off and stepped closer to me again. He trapped me between the counter and himself.

“Shouldn’t what?” I prodded him, knowing and hoping the answer that was coming. He took in a deep breath.

“Do things with you,” he whispered.

“Like?” I prompted feeling myself heat up again. He only smirked as he tugged the zipper of my hoodie down and then trailed his hands up and under my tank top. If I thought his kisses drove me crazy, it was nothing to how his hands felt on my bare flesh. The heat that had been enveloping me since I had come home from dinner, was now suffocating. I felt like I was stuck in a dry desert. It wasn’t unpleasant though, no, far from it. However, even through the haze of desire I heard a part of my brain screaming at me that this wasn’t right. We had only just met, and even though this was part of my mission, it still wasn’t right to start if off this way. Besides what about his feelings for Serenity? How much of a role did that play in his seducing of me at the moment?

Unfortunately for me, my logical mind won out. I placed my hands on his chest – trying to ignore how taut they felt beneath my palms – and pushed slightly. He withdrew his hands immediately and took a few steps back to give me room. When I looked into Darien’s eyes, I could see that he was wondering why I had him stop. If only he knew how much I didn’t want him to, but I had to know some things or else my mind would not shut up.

“What?” He asked his voice rough.

“I’m sorry,” I replied automatically. “I know you want to do all kinds of things with me, that I wouldn’t mind, but there are some things that I have to know before we can continue… whatever this is.”

“Shoot.”

“Did you have feelings for my sister?” I asked, dreading the answer and my fears were only strengthened by the hiss he seemed to let out between his teeth. Apparently, that was the wrong question to ask. I looked into his eyes, and saw that they were slowly turning back to the azure blue that they had been originally been. _Damn it_ , why did I have to say anything about it? If I hadn’t, I could have been having amazing sex by now. Probably right on this kitchen counter.

He let out a sigh, “Am I that transparent?”

 _Yes._ “No,” I said. “But the way you two worked together and the fact that you were so close to her that you would do anything for her, made me wonder.”

“I did have feelings for her,” he said running his hand through his hair. “But after her death, I’m not sure if I really did or if I was just thinking I did. You see when I found out what it was she did for a living besides being my secretary, I began to think that I never really knew your sister, so how could I feel anything for her?”

“Yet you still visited her grave and left a red rose.”

He looked at me with surprise in his eyes. “How did you know that?”

“Mom told me,” I answered without even thinking about it.

“Right, I should have guessed that.” He looked away from me for a second. “You know I spent most of this evening after I brought you home debating the same thing, that you’re thinking of right now.”

“And what am I thinking right now?”

“You’re thinking, that the only reason that I’m even pursuing you is because you look like your sister,” he replied and I tried to not have the surprise show on my face. That was exactly what I had been thinking about. “See, I told you. But like I said, I spent the whole night thinking about it, and I’m giving up.”

“What do you mean you’re giving up?” I asked.

He moved closer to me capturing my hands with his, lowering his head and breathing in deeply. “I mean, that it isn’t worth thinking about. You told me so while working on my hand. You and your sister are different, and even though, we just met, I can tell that you _are_ different from her. So, don’t think too much about it, and just feel.” He captured my lips with his own and I felt myself drowning again in the kisses that lit up my body in ways that I hadn’t felt in over a half a millennia. Before I could lose myself completely, he pulled away.

“You had another question?” He reminded me, even though I was having a hard time trying to put any coherent thought together. What was the other question that I had for him? I thought desperately, and then my brain almost dinged when I remembered. Oh, right…

“It’s not a question,” I said my face heating up with a blush. “It’s more of a fact that I think might be relevant to our conversation.”

“Okay,” he said and moved away from me again, as if he knew that just being in his presence was too much for me to think clearly. “What’s on your mind, Serena?”

“Well…” I started but couldn’t finish. God, this was embarrassing. How did you tell an absolute sex god, which is exactly what Darien was, that the woman he wanted to have sex with was completely inexperienced?

“C’mon, Serena,” he teased. “Spit it out.”

“I’mavirgin,” I said in a rush, my words jumbling together.

“What was that?” He asked his interest piqued, and a frown forming on his lips. Maybe my words hadn’t been as jumbled as I thought.

“Don’t make me say it again,” I replied knowing that my face was completely red by now. I looked away from him, not wanting to see what he felt about this. This was definitely a mood killer.

* * *

 

The only thing that Darien could do was stare at Serena. He hadn’t been taken aback when she had kissed him back. He hadn’t been taken aback when she had asked him about his feelings for Serenity. But this? This was a whole different thing. How was it that this complete angel standing before him, the one who had been so gentle with his hand that he hadn’t even felt the glass being removed from his skin, the one who could tempt even the most strong of men, hadn’t been touched before? Was a virgin? It just didn’t make any sense.

 _Well, hell,_ he thought to himself. What was he supposed to do now? He had never been with a virgin before. Not even when _he_ was a virgin. Besides he had been too drunk during his first time to even remember what had happened, but with Serena…he knew that that wasn’t an option for her. She was too special to be completely wasted. Besides he wouldn’t do that to her. He could always wait until the perfect moment, but as his gaze trailed over her curves he dismissed that thought. There was no way that he could wait besides he had a thing about waiting ever since Serenity’s death. Life was short; he needed to seize the moment.

But didn’t she deserve more than some random lust induced hook up that he had planned from earlier? Definitely, but…he looked at her again. Her face was so red, she was completely embarrassed by the fact that she was a virgin at twenty-four. It was nothing to be embarrassed about though. If anything, Darien envied her for being able to resist temptation for so long. It also warmed his heart that she would tell him that before they had done anything. What had that meant though? Was she ready to give it up to him?

 _Whoa,_ he thought. That was such a high school senior thought. He bit his lip. How was he supposed to handle this?

* * *

I shouldn’t have told him. He hasn’t said a word since I told him. I should have known better. Back when I was alive, if you still had your virtue you were considered a commodity. You were prime, and ready to wed. But in the twenty-first century, a virgin at twenty-four, what the hell was wrong with you? You either had strict religious beliefs or you were just…

I didn’t see him move, but all of a sudden his lips were on mine. He was kissing me as if I hadn’t said anything about being a virgin. I kissed him back just as feverishly, but with questions. What did this mean? Did it not matter to him? Was he still going to have his wicked way with me? _Oh, please yes_ …I thought to myself as he continued to devour my lips. He broke away and let me catch my breath.

“I have so many questions for you,” he whispered into my ear his breathing ragged. “But that can wait until later, the only one I’ll ask you now is, are you sure you want to do this with me?”

“Yes,” I breathed.

“Great,” he said and looked with longing at the counter I was trapped in front of. “Too bad this is your first time or else I would have had you on this counter top, but that can also wait until later. Let’s get you to bed.” He took my hand and dragged me towards my bedroom, not noticing my shocked expression. The counter top? Later? What the hell had I gotten myself into? And why was I so turned on by the thought?

He pulled me into my bedroom and gently eased me onto the bed. He took off his shirt and threw it into a corner. I looked at him and lingered on his defined upper muscles. God, he was so toned… I lost my train of thought as he shrugged me out of my hoodie and then my tank top. I only knew he had taken off my tank top when I felt a cold wind on my bare breasts. I felt a need to cover them up, but the way he looked at them, made me think otherwise. He stared at them for a while before he looked at me.

“You are an angel,” he whispered and then kissed me on the lips briefly before he moved down to the aforementioned breasts. He took a nipple into his mouth, and I felt a jolt of some unnamed emotion fill me. Places I didn’t know existed began to come alive and thrummed with a feeling that I couldn’t name. _Pleasure_ , that’s what it had to be, I thought numbly as he continued to suck and nibble on my nipples. I moaned and let myself fall back onto the bed. While nibbling, his hands roamed over my curves and hesitated for a second on the waistband of my flannel pajama bottoms. He pushed them down, and I helped him by kicking them off. His hands continued to roam lower and he teased me with my underwear still on.

He lifted his head from my breasts and shot me a smirk with an arched brow. “You’re already wet?” He asked his voice deep. “What were you up to before I came over?”

I was glad for the darkness of the room so he couldn’t see me blush even deeper than before. How had he known what I had been doing before he had come over? It wasn’t like…he dipped a finger inside my underwear and my legs went rigid. What the…. as quickly as his finger went inside, it was gone. He brought his hand back up to his nose and smelled, before he grabbed my right hand and smelled that too. Um…that wasn’t weird at all… I looked at him with a questioning glance and he only smiled.

“Well, now I know what you were doing…” he chuckled into my ear. “Tell me, while you were touching yourself were you thinking of me?” If it was even possible, my blush deepened and I opened my mouth to say something when he kissed me, thrusting his tongue inside of my opened mouth. I moaned silently as our tongues danced with each other. But before I could get a coherent thought out, his lips and tongue were gone and he was moving lower. His fingers hooked into the edges of my underwear and he tugged them down.

What was he doing? I thought to myself as I watched him with lust filled eyes. He couldn’t already be down there when _his_ pants were still on. It wasn’t fair. I was about to voice my complaint when his tongue dipped inside me. I gasped and closed my eyes involuntarily. What was this…? I thought. My thoughts got meddled as he continued to lick. Something tightened inside of me and I didn’t know how I was going to find my release when he tweaked something and I came undone, screaming.

When I finally stopped seeing stars, Darien was standing at the foot of my bed, pushing down his sweat pants. What popped out made my eyes go wide. There was _no way_ that was going to fit where I thought he was going to put it.

Darien smiled sweetly at the expression on my face as he came back to cover his body with mine. He kissed me slowly and sweetly. “It’s going to be okay,” he whispered. “I’ll try to be as gentle as I can, but I won’t lie to you. The first time is going to hurt a little bit.” He caressed my cheek before he lowered himself down. He grabbed my knees and pulled apart my legs before he positioned himself at my entrance. He looked at me, a question in his eyes that almost seemed to ask if I was sure about this. I nodded once and he slowly eased himself into me.

* * *

Darien froze as he entered her, she had been tighter than he had been expecting. He grinded his teeth together to keep himself from going full hilt into her knowing that it was her first time. He didn’t want to hurt her by doing that, even though it was going to hurt anyway, but if he did what he wanted, she would be in even more pain. He kept easing himself slowly in, until he came up against resistance. _Son of a bitch_ she hadn’t been lying. She still was a virgin. He breathed as evenly as he could before he pushed past it and he heard her scream in pain.

* * *

 _Holy shit_ , this was not okay. I thought to myself as I screamed out in pain. This hurt like nothing I had ever felt before. This hurt worse than dying. But at the same time, I felt the same pleasure that I had felt while he had been licking me. He stayed still within me and the pain seemed to lessen somewhat. I stopped screaming and breathed in deeply. He looked at me before he moved slightly and I gasped. The pleasure overriding the pain, and hell, did it feel good. I rocked my hips against him, which seemed to spur him on as he thrusted deep within me.

* * *

She was so tight, he thought to himself as he thrusted deep within her, the friction sending pleasure tingling down his spine. He kept looking at her, wondering if he had caused her any pain. But her eyes were closed and her mouth was open in an ‘o.’ Not to mention she was meeting his thrusts. The pain must have subsided by now, and he smiled as he picked up the pace.

* * *

The same pressure I had felt while he was licking me was building up again, and his speed was increasing. I kept meeting him with my hips, hoping to find some release for this pressure that was building up inside me.

“Faster,” I moaned. Darien complied, but instead of going faster he drew himself all the way out. I opened my eyes wondering why, when he slammed all the way into me at once. That did it. I came undone again and screamed.

* * *

He felt her walls clench around him and he was almost there himself. He thrusted in a few more times, before he felt the ball of pressure at the base of his spine finally come undone. He spilled his load inside of her before he collapsed, covering her body with his own.

* * *

Darien collapsed on top of me, and I felt complete. We were both exhausted from our activity and I sighed in contentment. He looked at me with an amused expression on his face, but I only smiled at him, before kissing him quickly on the lips.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

He returned my smile with a lazy one of his own. “My pleasure, really.” I giggled, not being able to stop myself from it coming out, and he rolled off of me. I slightly started to panic, thinking he was going to leave me, but he took me in his arms and laid my head on his naked chest. “Sleep, Serena,” he whispered. “You still have work tomorrow.”

I didn’t have to be told twice, as I felt my eyes close on their own, and before I knew it I was sound asleep in his arms.

* * *

Serenity tried not to jump up and down as she watched Darien and Serena copulate their love, but it was hard. She had had reservations about Sapphire’s plan when she had figured it out when he came to take Serena back to the surface, but…it was probably the smartest plan there was. After five hundred years of watching her previous doppelgangers live their lives, and Serenity finally finding Endymion, it was time that Serena had her happiness, even if that was with Darien. She flicked the screen off as she heard footsteps come down the hall and stop at the door to her bedroom.

Even though it had been eight days – time moved differently in Hell than in the land of the living - since she had fought Beryl, she _still_ hadn’t told Endymion about what had happened while she was on the surface. Sure, she had told him about Beryl and Bethany in fact being the same person, but…she couldn’t bring herself to tell him that Serena and her had teamed up to defeat the witch _and_ that his bloodline had continued on even though he had died. For one thing, she didn’t know how he would react to that information. She had a few guesses; disbelief, denial, and then possibly insistence that he get to see his great many times over grandson. The other thing that worried Serenity about telling him this information was the five hundred year rule.

Endymion had told her that his great-great-great grandfather Sapphire had ruled hell for five hundred years before he came to him and told him that it was his destiny to take over for him. Which lead to the events of Serena’s death and then Sapphire’s death by Endymion’s hand. Devils were only supposed to rule five hundred years before they had to give up the throne to the next male in their bloodline, but because Endymion had died – he believed that he had no one left in his bloodline. Serenity couldn’t tell him that he was wrong. That he had someone to pass the throne to.

Besides, she was still trying to figure out what it meant for her and Endymion if the throne was passed on to Darien. What would happen to Serenity and Endymion? She sighed and leaned back into her pillows. Her after life was supposed to be uncomplicated. She was supposed to be happy with Endymion, but…these thoughts kept pressing on her mind. She was stressing out again.

“That does not sound like a good sigh,” a familiar male voice said from across the room. She opened her eyes and looked to find Endymion standing and leaning on the wall across from the bed. He stared back at her with a smile on his face before he crossed the room and pinned her to the bed. “What’s wrong, Serenity?”

“Nothing,” she replied pressing herself against him. “I’m just sick of being on bed rest. It’s been eight days, Endymion, I’m fine.”

“You are not fine,” he said gruffly. “You fought not only Beryl but that bastard Diamond, as well. Not to mention you also went from the land of the living back to Hell, that takes a lot out of a person, even if the person is dead. I’m not taking any chances with you. Stay in bed, rest, I assure you, you are in the most capable of hands.”

“And whose hands are we speaking of?” She countered a smile playing on her lips. “Certainly not yours.”

His eyes flashed with amusement. “And why aren’t mine capable of taking care of you, love?” His hands ran up the skirt of her nightgown and she gasped her head rolling back. “Or have you forgotten what they can do to you?”

She glared at him and moved her leg so her knee was even with his crotch. “Have you forgotten what my knee can do to your precious second brain?” She said sternly but laughed as his eyes widened in shock. She lowered her knee and kissed him deeply on the lips. He returned the kiss, but broke it off quickly.

He looked at her a smile playing on his face. “As much as I love kissing you, Serenity, don’t think you can distract me so easily. I know that this is something more than you just being cooped up. What’s going on?”

She cursed in her mind, wishing that he wasn’t able to read her so easily. She didn’t want to tell him about Darien and Serena, but there was only so long that she’d be able to not tell him anything. Darien would find out about his lineage sooner rather than later, especially now that he was with Serena. It was only appropriate that she tell Endymion that things as they knew it were going to change, and soon.

Serenity opened her mouth to start telling him everything, when a knock sounded on the door. He looked at her with a look that seemed to say, ‘I’m the Devil, what are you going to do?’ He rolled off and approached the door. He swung it open and Serenity was surprised to see Zoicite at the threshold.

She wasn’t the only one. “Zoicite,” he said the tone of his voice reflecting his surprise. It was very rare for the auburn haired master of hell to bother Endymion when he was in his rooms. The master, realizing this, looked over the Devil’s shoulder and nodded at Serenity.

“I’m sorry to disturb,” he said. “But there is something that you need to know.”

Serenity sat up and Endymion quickly invited him inside. “What is going on?” He asked his friend, who seemed to pale after being asked the question. She exchanged looks with her lover, and he held her hand tightly. They had never seen him look this way before. Usually, Zoicite was calm and collected, the only time Serenity had ever seen him disheveled was the first day she had been here. But _that_ had been a different kind of disheveled that had to do with a bluenette woman.

“It’s Beryl,” Zoicite answered. “She’s returned.”


	4. Ignore the Burning Chicken, Let's Talk

I woke up the following morning, with the sunlight streaming in through my window. It took a few moments before I could place where I was and why my body felt so sore. I had a body. I was alive again, and the reason I was alive was because Fate needed the balance to be restored. I had started to work on that, by going to Serenity’s mother yesterday where I had also ran into Darien. _Darien_ …my brain stuck on the name as the events of the night before played in my mind. The blood went to my cheeks and I tried not to smile, but it was in vain. Last night had been perfect, and even though I knew I should feel bad for what I had done, especially so soon after meeting the man, but yet I wasn’t feeling anything other than pure happiness.

A feeling that evaporated when I rolled over to find my bed empty. I sat up in my bed, the comforter wrapped around my body, and found that I was completely alone. Why would he leave as if I was a one-night stand, as if he was… I let out a bitter laugh. As if he was like Endymion. God, this fit Endymion’s old persona before he became serious about me to an absolute T. Looks like more than just appearances was passed down. _Fuck my life_ , I thought and lay back down. Something crinkled beneath my back and I frowned. That was not my sheets. I sat back up and looked, it was a folded piece of paper.

 _No way_ , I thought and picked it up. Well, this was definitely not part of Endymion’s former motif. I unfolded the note and read through it:

_Dear Serena,_   
_Whatever you do, don’t freak out that I’m not there. I realized that in my haste to come and see you last night I never locked the door to my apartment. I also realized that, even though I would have loved to wake up with you in my arms, I still have a medical practice to run, and I can’t be late._   
_However, with that in mind, I still wish to continue whatever it was we started last night later tonight, after work? That is if you’re up for it? Besides, I believe that we really need to talk. Now, stop reading this letter and go and get ready for work, even though you’re sleeping with the boss, I still don’t want you to be late!_   
_Darien_

I smiled, the anger and bitterness I was feeling disappearing with each word I read. But he was right about a few things. One, we really needed to talk about what had happened and what it meant for us. And two, I really shouldn’t be late for work even though I was indeed sleeping with the boss. I looked at the clock and swore some more that morning.

I had to be at the office in twenty minutes. _  
_

* * *

I ran as fast as I dared down the block in a pair of high heels. The slightest misstep and I could go sprawling on the concrete. Lucky for me, the office wasn’t too far from the apartment, so I was able to make it to the door with two minutes to spare. I stopped and collected my breath and checked my appearance in the glass. Not a hair out of place, no dust on my skirt and blouse. I took in a deep breath and opened the door. 

Darien was sitting in my chair and looked up when he heard the door open. He smiled at me and looked at the clock.

“One minute to go, not bad, newbie,” he said and got out of the chair. “We have an easy day today, so before we start, about my note this morning…”

“Yes, what about it?” I asked as I sat down in the seat he had just vacated. He leaned down, his arms on the arms of my chair.

“What are you doing after work?”

“Well, according to some note, I have to have a long conversation regarding certain events from last night,” I replied, trying to ignore the darkening color of Darien’s eyes. But it was hard to do. I knew what the darkening meant, and I tried not to squirm in my seat at the thought of him and me doing it right here in this office.

“Good,” he said huskily, leaning in even closer. “We’ll have dinner at my place, and then have a very long conversation about what this means.” He breathed in deeply. “I’m trying really hard not to kiss you right now.”

“Keep trying,” I said. “Because we are in your place of employment and your first appointment is bound to walk in any minute now.” I tried to be the voice of reason, because someone had to be in this situation. 

“You do have a point,” he replied and straightened himself up. “All right, let’s get this day over with.” He moved towards his office, just as the front door opened again admitting the first patient of the day.

I smiled, “Good morning.”

* * *

The day seemed to keep dragging on. Darien kept looking at the clock every moment he could without looking too obvious that he would rather been somewhere else with someone else. With each patient who walked through his door, he knew that it was one less person he had to see, meaning the day was coming to an end sooner. Finally when he was waiting for his last patient of the day, he heard the door to the office open, and Serena’s greeting that broke off immediately. That couldn’t be a good sign. 

Darien strode from his office and was shocked when he saw Haruka and Michelle staring in shock at Serena sitting behind her desk.

“Haruka, Michelle,” he said drawing their attention.

“Darien,” they said in unison.

“Wait, Haruka?” Serena asked drawing the blonde woman’s attention again.

“Yes, that’s me. Now, who the hell are you? And why do you look like Serenity?” Darien tried not to wince along with Michelle. They both knew how abrasive the woman could be, but in situations like this, she shouldn’t be. Serena was in a delicate state, especially now that she was meeting the woman who got her sister into the business of contract killing. The job that had gotten her killed. Crap, Darien thought and tried to intercede.

“I’m her sister,” Serena said. Haruka and Michelle’s mouths popped open even more than they already had, and Darien couldn’t help but wonder if he had had the same expression on his face the day before when he had found out who she was. Most likely, he thought. “And if you’re really Haruka, then you and I need to have a serious and long conversation about what happened to her.”

The only thing the blonde woman did was nod her head, completely mute and Michelle couldn’t help but smile. “I have never seen Haruka be this quiet before, ever. This should be really good.” She turned to Darien. “Are you sure I have to have a check up today? Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

As much as he wanted to agree with the woman, he shook his head. It would probably be best if they weren’t involved in the conversation that those two were about to have. He didn’t know how much Michelle knew about what her partner did for a living, but he was pretty sure that the conversation that they were going to have would not be for her ears.

“C’mon back, Michelle,” he said and looked at Serena. “You’re going to be okay?” The blonde only nodded, not even looking at him. He frowned as he went back to the patient room. The good mood from earlier that day was gone. Whatever they were going to talk about could not bode well for the conversation he wanted to have with her later on that night. 

* * *

As soon as Darien left the room, I watched the blonde woman whose name was Haruka with an inspecting eye. I knew who the woman was, I had witnessed the scene where Serenity had been propositioned to become a contract killer to help pay for her mom’s hospital bills. Haruka would have done anything for Serenity, and as I looked at her, I could tell that she was waiting for me to lay into her for getting my ‘sister’ into the position that had gotten her killed.

But I wasn’t going to. No, instead I was going to tell her the truth. The real truth. I sighed and got up from my seat to get rid of the barrier that my desk provided us. I ushered her into the waiting room and we sat down on two chairs next to each other.

“Look, Serena, about your sister,” Haruka started but I waved her off.

“Haruka, please, I don’t blame you for what happened to her,” I said and took another breath. “If anything, there are things that you need to know about what happened after that night to my ‘sister.’” The confused look that she gave me was expected. She was probably going to think that I was insane. But I needed another confidant while I was here, and who better than the woman who had helped Serenity with her secret life?

“Serena, what are you talking about?”

“Before I go any further, I have to know, how open is your mind?”

“Pretty open, why?”

“Because, what I’m about to tell you is going to sound pretty damn insane. So insane, in fact, that you might want to have me locked up in a loony bin. But please, believe me when I say that everything I’m about to tell you is true.”

“Okay,” she said hesitatingly. “I’m all ears.”

* * *

When Darien and Michelle came out of the offices, they found Haruka and I sitting and talking like we were old friends. I had told her everything and I was shocked to see how well she had taken it. She gave me a hug and told me that my secret was safe with her; the only thing she wanted was permission to tell Michelle. Apparently, they didn’t keep secrets from each other. Besides, she had been really torn up about Serenity’s death. She had felt responsible because she had told Haruka about Serenity. I nodded my consent and she and I had been talking about things that she believed I needed to know about men in the twenty-first century. She had also warned me that even though things between Darien and me were going well, they probably wouldn’t continue that way if I didn’t tell him soon about _my_ secret life. 

“You weren’t around after Serenity’s death,” she said. “But, Darien was really torn up and there were days that I saw him where he looked like he didn’t understand why she had lied to him about what was going on with her. He’s the kind of man who doesn’t like people keeping secrets from him. So, the sooner you tell him, Serena, the better.” It was a good warning, one that I intended to take to heart, but I just had to figure out _how_ to tell him everything that I had just told Haruka. I also was cringing at the thought of how he was going to react. It ranged from completely pissed to… well, completely pissed. There was _no way_ he wouldn’t be mad at me after I told him everything. 

When Darien and Michelle walked back into the room, we could clearly see that they were shocked to see us talking and laughing. This was _not_ what they had planned on walking in on. They probably thought that I was going to bitch Haruka out about what had happened to my sister. But what they didn’t know…

“Haruka?” Michelle asked from the door.

“Hey,” she said and got up from her seat. “Did everything go okay?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a clean bill of health,” she said a frown still on her face as she tried to figure out what had gone on while she was getting her check up. Darien was throwing me the same look. I only smiled at him serenely as I got up and made my way back to the computer. I checked my screen and smiled at Michelle.

“You’re all set for the day, Michelle,” I said. “We’ll see you next year.”

“Well,” she said trailing off. “Since you two seem to be connecting, maybe we will see you sooner than that?”

“I would like that,” I continued to smile; ignoring the questioning glances that Darien was throwing my way. I would handle him later while we were discussing what the night before had meant. Or had he forgotten that we were having dinner after these two left?

“Well, we’ll be in touch,” Michelle said and took Haruka’s hand in hers. She nodded good-bye to Darien and walked out the door. As soon as the door closed, Darien was trapping me in my chair again. I looked up at him startled by the invasion of my personal space.

“One day,” he said his voice low. “You’re going to tell me what you and Haruka talked about because I honestly was expecting a different scene when I came back into the room.”

“And what sort of scene were you expecting?”

“Oh, I don’t know. A murder, probably,” he murmured his lips tantalizingly close to my ear. I tried not to smile, but I completely failed.

“Do you really think a person my size, could take on Haruka?” I asked. “She’s a trained killer. She could probably take me out in five seconds.”

“You forget, I don’t tend to underestimate people anymore. Not since…” he trailed off and stood back. My smile disappeared, the mood instantly shifting again at the mention of my sister’s former secret life. Haruka hadn’t been kidding. Serenity’s secret life as a contract killer had really shaken Darien up. “Anyway,” he said shaking himself out of his mood. “Now that they’re gone, we’re done for the day. So about dinner…”

I tried not to have my eyes widen as we walked into Darien’s apartment an hour later, our arms full of groceries. How was it that Darien and I had practically the same apartment, and yet his looked grander than mine? I looked around and my eyes zeroed in on the view from his windows. I stood there staring at the view of the city that seemed to roll out from his balcony. I was so enraptured by it that I didn’t hear Darien come up beside me.

“I know,” he said taking the bags of groceries from my arms. “The view is pretty breathtaking.” He turned and walked into the kitchen to start on our dinner. We had chosen to make a simple meal of chicken with potatoes and steamed vegetables. He started busying himself with preparing the chicken that he didn’t seem to notice that I had come in behind him. I didn’t mind. I got to watch him without him watching me back. He moved with such grace through his own kitchen, if I hadn’t known better I thought he’d been cooking his whole life. Darien finally seemed to realize that I was watching him and he turned and smirked at me.

“Enjoying the view?” He asked.

I smiled at him, “Yes, both of them.” I turned back to the window and heard him chuckle as he continued to cook our dinner. I wandered out of the kitchen and closer to the window, and just continued to stare at the city below. Haruka had warned me about Darien’s short tolerance for secrets and I had seen it for myself a few times already in the last day and a half. This stumped me. How was I supposed to tell him the biggest secret that he would ever know and not have him hate me? There was just no way…

A glass of red wine entered my vision and I looked up to see Darien standing behind me with a smile on his face. “I’ve been calling your name for the last two minutes. What are you thinking about so hard?” He asked and handed me the glass. I took it gratefully and took a small sip.

“I’m just thinking,” I whispered. “Seeing Haruka today brought up a lot of things.” He offered me a seat on his couch, one that I gratefully took. I sat down and he sat down next to me taking my hand in his own.

“I’ll be honest, I was worried when I saw her come in with Michelle today,” he said. “I had completely forgotten that she was even supposed to come in, but you seemed to handle it with ease. I’m still curious as to what you two talked about.”

“Maybe, one day, I’ll tell you,” I said and took another sip from my glass trying to ignore the look he was giving me. It was a look that said that he wanted to know what we had talked about, and he wanted to know it now. But he only sighed, realizing that I wasn’t going to be telling him anytime soon. Besides we had other more important things to talk about.

“Okay,” he sighed. “Then I guess we can move on to the other subject that we need to talk about tonight.”

“Right,” I turned to him. “So about last night…”

“Last night was amazing,” he said automatically, his hand tightening around mine. “But I feel really bad that it happened so soon after us meeting each other. If I had any respect, I would have at least asked you out on a few dates first. Instead I show up at your door with a bleeding hand at two in the morning.” He shook his head.

I laughed, “Yes, quite an interesting way to seduce a girl, I got to say.”

His eyes caught mine with a piercing stare and his lips turned up into another smirk. “Seduction? You call what I did seduction? You were the one who was seducing me.”   
I spluttered. “What? How do you figure?”

“Really?” He countered. “You answered the door at two in the morning, you invited me inside your apartment and took care of my hand. Not to mention you were only wearing a pair of flannel pants with a white tank top, with no bra! If that’s not seduction…”

“Hey! What else was I supposed to wear?” I asked. “As you pointed out, it was two in the morning, I wasn’t expecting anyone to show up at my door.”

We fell into silence and I wanted to curse him. Why was it we couldn’t have a normal conversation without there being words unsaid or an argument? I took another sip of my wine, before the glass was taken out of my hand. I swallowed and stared at Darien who placed both our glasses on the table. What was he doing? Was he kicking me out? Had I really pissed him off? I bit my lip as I watched him with hesitant eyes. He turned back to me a thoughtful expression on his face, as he leaned in closer to me. I continued looking at him with inquisitive eyes. His hand reached out and curled one of my loose hairs around my ear.

“When you keep arguing with me like that,” he seemed to breathe. “It’s hard for me to even think straight around you. We should be talking about what last night meant. We should be talking about how much of an ass I am for taking you even though we’d only known each other for five minutes. But instead, here we are arguing about who seduced who at two in the morning.” He pulled my chin towards him and I happily let his lips claim mine. I wasn’t even sure how my body ended up fully horizontal on his couch with his body cloaking mine.

But when he pulled back, I saw the ceiling behind his ear. _Holy crap_ , I thought to myself. “Serena, if you don’t agree to be my girlfriend, I think I might have to do something drastic.” His voice was husky with need, and I couldn’t blame him. The space between my legs was dripping, how was it possible that he could make me feel this way?

“Darien,” I said. 

“Please, don’t say no,” he whispered his forehead on mine and his breath hot on my face. “Whatever you do, please don’t say no.” 

“I’m not saying no,” I whispered back my voice hoarse. “But…” I flexed my hips and felt something hard poking me just where I wanted it. I moaned and saw his eyes light up with understanding. He kissed me again, this time his kiss more heated than it had been earlier. I lifted my arms so I could plunge my hands into his hair and hold him to my face, but he wouldn’t have it. He ripped his lips away from me and looked down on me.

“If I was an honorable man, I would take you to my bed,” he whispered as he peppered kisses down my neck. “Especially after all the fantasies I had about you in it last night. But I’m not honorable.” His hands trailed down to my shirt and ripped it open, not even bothering with all the buttons. I heard the _ping_ that signaled the buttons had flown off into various directions of his apartment and I felt my body flush with heat and need. His eyes devoured me, lingering on the blue push up bra I had thrown on that morning. “And you thought this was appropriate for work?” He asked those eyes darkening into a color I was starting to know very well. 

“You ruined my blouse,” the only coherent thought that I was able to voice. He looked at me like I was crazy. “I liked this blouse.” I said and he only chuckled as he pushed the ruined fabric off my shoulder.

“I did too,” he whispered as he kissed my shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll buy you a new one.”

“Mmph,” was my only reply as I felt him go lower. He lowered the cups of my bra to reveal my naked breasts and the already pebbled nipples. He hissed as he took one in his mouth and bit gently. My head snapped back as the pleasure coursed through me. I opened my eyes to look at him when I noticed a rift of gray floating from the kitchen. My nose than picked up on it. Smoke. Something was burning.

“Um…Darien?” I asked. He muffled something against my breast. “As much as I want you to continue, I smell smoke.” His head snapped up from my breast and he looked towards the kitchen.

“Shit. That’s the chicken,” He got up and ran. 

* * *

Haruka walked into the former arcade the following morning feeling much better than she had in months. Serenity was at peace and having the time of her after life with the Devil down in Hell. Serena was here to take care of Darien’s broken heart, and from what she saw she was doing a good job. The only thing that could have made this day better was if she had walked into the old arcade and not the stuffy café it had become since Andrew’s death. But there was nothing that could have been done about it. She took her usual seat by the window and waited for her appointment to walk in.

Although she had looked for the last few months, she hadn’t been able to find someone new to take on to replace Serenity’s position. Because of that, she had been doing a lot of jobs on her own. Something that her girlfriend Michelle didn’t care for at all. So when she got a call on her secure line the day before from someone who saw her ad, she had accepted to interview them today. The sooner she filled the position the sooner Michelle would forgive her and let her back into their bed. The couch was not a comfortable place to sleep every night.

A woman with auburn hair that went just slightly past her shoulders walked into the café. Haruka watched her carefully wondering if this was her interview candidate. She fit the description that she had out to a T. Small build so she could get in and out of places easily and sexy for those clients who needed to be seduced before they were killed. Haruka observed this all without even having to talk to her. Yes, she would do just fine. Now she just needed to find out what her experience level was, her intelligence level, and how well she could keep a secret. It wouldn’t do to have someone who went around blabbing what she did for a living.

The woman spotted Haruka and made her way to the table. Before she sat down she looked at the blonde and smiled. “Are you Haruka?” She asked her voice lowered to a whisper.

“I am, and you are?”

“The name is Anne,” the woman replied and took a seat across from her. “I’m here about the position you posted.”

* * *

I tried not to laugh as I watched Darien’s dejected expression as he took out his severely burned chicken. But it was impossible; the expression on his face and the way he was looking at the chicken was just too much for me. I let out a peal of laughter. He snapped his head up and looked at me, plain amusement on his face.

“Oh, you think this is funny?” He asked dropping the pan that held the chicken into the sink.

“You have no idea,” I said gasping for breath after my laughter had subsided. “The way you were looking at that chicken, you would have thought it had been your dog.” I wiped some tears out of my eyes. God, it felt good to laugh like that. When my gaze finally cleared, he was standing in front of me an expression on his face that I was too scared to name. In fact, I didn’t have much time before he picked me up and hauled me deeper into the kitchen. “Darien,” I whined as I pounded on his back. “Let me go.”

“Okay,” he said and placed me on the counter. I looked at him amazement in my eyes. Just who did he think he was carrying me like that? What was he a caveman? And I thought the men of the sixteenth century were bad. They had nothing on this guy. Now, why had he put me on the kitchen counter?

“Darien, why am I on the counter?” I asked.

He smiled at me, moving closer to me. “Don’t you remember what I said last night?” He asked his voice husky again. I continued to look at him not understanding what he was talking about when a memory from last night replayed itself in my mind.

 _“Great,” he said and looked with longing at the counter I was trapped in front of. “Too bad this is your first time or else I would have had you on this counter top, but that can also wait until later. Let’s get you to bed.”_

My eyes locked onto his, as I realized that my blouse was still destroyed and my breasts were hanging out of my bra. I hadn’t really done a good job of getting myself together before I had followed him in here. _Oh_ , I thought as realization dawned on my face. He licked his lips and placed both his arms on the counter top beside me.

“The things I’m going to do to you,” he whispered as his hands went around me. They touched the back of my skirt searching for the zipper. Once he found it he tugged it down gently, probably not wanting to also ruin my skirt on top of my blouse. Once it was down he grasped the fabric and slid it down my legs. He dropped it onto the floor, before he moved onto my panties. His fingers trailed around the waistband, feeling the fabric with the pads of his fingertips. They slid further downwards and I tried not to flex my hips to meet them.

“Darien…” I whispered. He didn’t say a word as those fingers touched that piece of fabric that covered the spot between my thighs. He chuckled as he felt the damp fabric and he hastily moved it aside. He stroked the already sensitive flesh and I balanced my head on the cabinet behind me. Darien whispered something that I couldn’t quite catch because his finger had delved inside me. Even though the contact felt good – hell more than good – it still wasn’t what I wanted inside me, and he must have known that. This slow tantalizing pace had to be killing him.

I had felt his erection when we had been on the couch, he must still be feeling the pressure. “Darien…” I whispered again and grasped for him. My hands found his shoulders and I flinched at the contact. His skin was on fire.

“Just let it go, Serena,” he whispered back to me, his fingers moving faster within me, the pressure I knew from last night was building in my lower stomach again. His eyes found mine and I felt the pressure finally find its release. I moaned my hips rocking back and forth, when I finally felt some sense of sanity return, I saw him remove his fingers. He reached for a towel and wiped his dripping fingers off. I felt myself blush as I realized all that liquid had come from me.

“Don’t be embarrassed, Serena,” he whispered as his fingers touched my face. He dipped his head and kissed me deeply. I felt it in my toes. Speaking of toes, I drew my legs around his waist and drew him to me. His erection was still present and I pressed it to my damp core. He moaned into my mouth before he drew himself away. “Stop, are you trying to unman me?” He asked a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“Of course not,” I replied. “Just trying to help you.” My legs tightened around him and he groaned. He looked at me shocked, before his hands were on my panties again. This time he ripped them off. There went another part of my outfit, I thought with a laugh. His hands then moved to his belt buckle, which he quickly undid. He popped open the button of his pants and brought down the zipper with such haste I had no idea, until his pants were around his ankles along with his boxers. Darien’s erection popped free, and before I could take in a gasp of appreciation he sunk within me.

We moaned together, and I hooked my ankles around the curve of his back to bring him in even deeper. I knew one thing for sure; I was not going to be able to look at kitchen counters the same way again. Not after today.

* * *

A few hours later, Darien tried not to laugh as he heard my stomach grumble, but I could see the laughter in his eyes. I tried to glare at him, but it didn’t work. I ended up laughing instead and pulled the covers over my head. Well, at least, I tried to, he pulled the cover back down and looked at me with a smile on his face that I could really get used to.

“Don’t you dare hide that beautiful face of yours,” he said pushing some of the hair out of my face. “Now, do you want Chinese food or pizza for dinner?”

“What? No chicken?” I asked with a smile on my face as Darien stuck out his tongue at me before covering my body with his own. Something hard was poking at me and I let out another peal of laughter. “Oh, c’mon you got to admit it was funny.”

“I don’t think I will ever live this down,” he said and kissed my cheek. “But seriously, Chinese or pizza?”

“Mhm…Chinese sounds good,” I replied as I flexed my hips up to meet the hard thing poking me. He hissed at the contact. “But it seems to me that you have other things on your mind than dinner.”

He smiled but shook his head. “I’d better get some food in you before we go another round…” his gaze lingered on me as he got out of bed to place the order for food. “Or two.” He muttered as he walked away. I giggled and buried myself deeper into Darien’s bed. His bed was so much more comfortable than mine was in my apartment. Speaking of…I thought with a groan. I needed to go back to my place to get a shirt and another pair of underwear since he ruined the ones I had been wearing earlier.

I sighed and got up from his very comfortable bed with the sheet wrapped around me tightly. I heard his voice in the other room and knew that he was placing the order for the food. If I was quick, I could sneak out and go get some things before he even realized…Before I could even get out of bed though, Darien came wandering back in. He saw that I was sitting up and sent me a questioning glance.

“Any particular reason you’re up?” He asked. “You don’t have to worry about getting dressed and eating in the dinning room. We can eat in here.”

“No, that’s not it, I just…” I trailed off. “I was thinking about going back to my apartment to get some things.”

“Like what?” His face had fallen from disappointment.

“Um… another shirt? A pair of underwear?” I retorted with a smile on my face. “Since _someone_ ripped the ones I had.” As soon as I said the words, the look of disappointment disappeared and a sheepish look appeared.

“I guess I did do that,” he replied. “But can it wait until after the food gets here?”

“Why?”

“Because I’ll get them for you,” he said his voice stern. “There’s no way I’m letting you leave this apartment tonight. _Especially_ with no shirt and panties on.” As he said the phrase, his eyes darkened again. I squirmed in his bed and felt my mouth instantly go dry. How was it possible that he was _still_ horny even though we had already done it twice? 

"You’re insatiable,” I said and tried to move away from him. “C’mon, Darien, you said it yourself, you need food before we can go again. Besides, the delivery guy is going to be here soon.” He closed his eyes and moved away from me in the same movement. I watched him as he approached his closet. He disappeared inside and I sighed in relief. As much as I craved him, there was only so many times I could do things without food in me. It was getting hard to even stay awake. He reappeared and handed me a blue shirt.

“This may be a little big on you,” he said. “But it should cover you up, until I can get you some more clothes.” He turned away and I slipped out of his bed to throw it on. The fabric of the shirt was so soft, and he was right. The shirt was a little big on me. The hem of the shirt fell to just above my knees, covering everything that needed to be covered. Forget going to get some more clothes, I could sleep in this shirt for the rest of my life. It was so soft, and not to mention it smelled like him. I gathered my hair out of the collar and threw it up into a quick ponytail. 

“Okay,” I said and he turned back around. His mouth dropped open, and I tried not to smile at him. “Close your mouth, Darien.” I scolded with a smile on my face.

“How is it that you can even make my shirt look good?” He murmured as he approached me. “I know I ruined your blouse and your panties, and I said that I would pay for another shirt, but… do you think you could accept this one as payment?”

“I can definitely consider it,” I said and let him draw my body to his. His hands wrapped around me and I placed my head on his chest. Was this really what I had been missing for the last five hundred years? Was this what it would have been like if Endymion and I had actually gotten married instead of… I sighed. It wouldn’t do to think about the what if. That had been a former life, and unlike so many before me, I had the chance to relive it. I looked up into Darien’s eyes, as I continued to think. Boy, was I ever doing something right. 

* * *

Endymion and Serenity sat frozen as they looked at their friend. They exchanged looks and both knew that there was no need to check their hearing. They had both heard the same thing come from the auburn haired man’s mouth.

“How?” Serenity was the first to speak. “I destroyed her. There is no way that she can be back.”

“Zoicite,” Endymion said his voice hard, and as Serenity looked at him she could tell that he was really close to losing control over his temper. “Explain.”

“Beryl is back,” he repeated and backed up when he saw Endymion take a threatening step forward. “But she’s not back in Hell. She’s in the land of the living. She’s been reincarnated.”

Serenity felt her mouth drop open, but as she looked at Endymion she could tell that she was the only one who was shocked at this information. “Endymion…” she said and he looked at her. He read her expression and with a wave of his hand dismissed his fellow master. Zoicite left with no other explanation. As soon as he left, Endymion turned to her. “How is it possible that Beryl has already been incarnated? It’s only been eight days since I destroyed her.”

“Serenity,” he said with a reassuring voice as he held her hand in his. “There is something that you need to understand about the disposal of souls who have been in Hell.” He sighed.

“When a soul in Hell is dispatched permanently, they go back to the land of the living and attach themselves to their eldest living member of their bloodline.”

“Wait, so…let me see if I can get this straight,” she said. “I dispatched Beryl permanently from Hell, because of that her soul left and went back to the land of the living where she’s attached herself to someone from her bloodline?”

“Yes, that’s exactly how it works.”

“So, if something happened to you or me while we were down here…” she trailed off.

“Nothing would happen to us, because our bloodlines ended with us.”

Serenity bit her lip knowing that this would be the appropriate time to bring up that Endymion’s bloodline hadn’t been ended with him as he thought it had. Also, that if something happened to her, she would attach herself to Serena… She sighed and he turned his attention back to her.

“Serenity, you don’t need to worry,” he reassured her. “With Beryl and Diamond gone, there is no one who would dare hurt you while down here. We’re safe.”

“Endymion,” she sighed. “There’s something I need to tell you.”


	5. Plots and Loopholes

Emerald Richardson sat patiently in the office waiting room, her legs crossed. She tried to make herself busy with a chip in her manicure, but she was feeling impatient. She didn’t like to be summoned and she especially didn’t like old men staring at her with lust filled eyes. _Move on, gramps,_ she thought to herself. She was not available to men like that. She wasn’t the gold digging sort that this man probably thought she was. She came from money that would have made this man’s poor heart stop with envy. She sighed and looked around the waiting room. These people need a new decorator; it was so boring in here. 

If she had any common sense she would walk out right now. As she said before, she did _not_ like being summoned, and she still didn’t understand what she had been summoned here for. This business was no longer of any concern to her. Her former lover had died over two months ago. She had washed her hands of that nonsense the weeks after his death when it came to light that he had raped and murdered a woman a month before his death. He was crooked and just like any other man. He couldn’t keep it in his pants. So, why was she here?

She sighed again, and almost didn’t see when the secretary approached her. “Ms. Richardson?” She said. The woman looked up.

“Yes?”

“Mr. Chambers will see you now,” the secretary said and Emerald got up from her seat and followed her through the doors. That was another thing, she had gotten a call from this woman next to her telling her that a Mr. Chambers wanted to see her. Mr. Chambers? The only Mr. Chambers she had known was dead. So who was this other Chambers? That was probably the only reason that she had come today. Her curiosity had been peaked.

The secretary led her through the offices before stopping before a big oak door. She knocked and a voice called out to come in. She opened the door for Emerald and ushered her inside before closing the door behind her. Emerald approached the desk in the middle of the room and stared. Sitting in the chair was a gorgeous man with long black hair that was pulled back into a braid. His brown eyes reminded her of chocolate. Who was this man?

“Ms. Richardson, I presume?” He asked.

“Yes,” she answered and moved further into the room. “I’m Emerald Richardson, and who exactly are you?”

“I’m Seiya Chambers, I was Diamond’s brother.”

She felt her mouth pop open from the shock, before she quickly realized where she was and _who_ she was. She covered her mouth with her hand, “Excuse me, I just wasn’t expecting - ”

“I know,” he replied and offered her a seat in front of his desk. “For some unknown reason, Diamond never mentioned me to a lot of people. I don’t understand why, but those are the breaks.”

“So, why did you call me here, Mr. Chambers?”

“Call me Seiya, please, and the reason I called you here, Ms. Richardson is because of my brother’s will. My brother left you a portion of the company, and I wanted to see what it would take from me to gain control of your shares.”

She blinked. “That’s it?” She asked. “ _That’s_ the reason you called me down here? To get the shares that Diamond left me?”

Seiya blinked back at her before he let out a smile that sent shivers up her spine. If there had been any previous doubt that this man was Diamond’s brother, there wasn’t any now. They shared the same smile. The smile that made anyone who received it very nervous about how they proceeded. “You are a very smart woman, Ms. Richardson. There is definitely another reason why I called you down here other than the shares of the company that my brother left you. Although that does play a role. You see, before I have you sign over those shares, I believe that you could be of use to me.”

Her eyes narrowed. The last time she heard that phrase she had ended up as Diamond’s lover while he ran around town committing all sorts of felonies, including the murder of that poor innocent girl. “If it’s all the same to you, Seiya, I believe I’ll just sign over my shares and take a check before I do anything that would help you.” She stood to leave, but the next words out of his mouth made her stay.

“I can see that you’re still angry at my brother for the crimes that he committed while he was in a relationship with you. I don’t blame you for your anger, but what if I told you that the last crime that he committed against that poor young woman wasn’t a crime? What if I told you it was self defense?”

“And how was it self defense? Serenity Anderson was raped and then murdered by Diamond, Seiya,” she said exasperated.

“Were you there?” Was his only reply.

“Of course not. But I saw the court proceedings I read the news articles. Serenity Anderson was an innocent woman, who just happened to go home with the wrong man that night. Don’t tell me you know otherwise, unless you can prove it.”

“I can prove it,” Seiya said his voice firm. “Serenity Anderson was not as innocent as the media has made her out to be. She was a contract killer and Diamond was her mark. Only he got the drop on her.”

Emerald sat back down abruptly. “What?”

“I thought that would get your attention,” he smiled again. “Serenity Anderson was a contract killer, Diamond was her mark that night. Instead of seducing him to his grave, he got the drop on her and although I admit his actions before he killed her were not honorable, what he did was in self defense.”

“Why tell me this?” She asked. “What good does this information do for me? Diamond is dead. Serenity is dead. It’s not like you can get any revenge, if that’s what you’re planning.”

“You are quite astute, Ms. Richardson, for you see that’s exactly what I plan to do. I plan to get revenge, and I plan to do that by going after Serenity Anderson’s family – starting with her sister.”

* * *

The couple sat in silence as Serenity’s news that Endymion did in fact still have a current bloodline hung in the air. His mind was running at the speed of sound as he realized that the future that he thought he had with Serenity wasn’t as solid as he thought it had been. The fact that he had an heir who was living in the land of the living right now changed things. It changed a lot of things. For one thing…he looked at her.

“You know this changes everything,” he said breaking the silence between them.

“Of course I know this changes everything,” she replied. “That’s why I didn’t want to tell you about him, about her, or about your great-great-great grandfather’s role in all of this.”

“You’re still not telling me everything. What do you mean her role? And what does Sapphire have to do with any of this? He washed his hands of this nonsense when I killed him almost five hundred years ago. He’s gone, that’s what happens to souls from Hell who are destroyed.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again when she realized that he was right. Sapphire was a walking contradiction to everything that he had just told her about souls from Hell that were destroyed. If Endymion killed Sapphire five hundred years ago, how was it that he was still around? He should have moved on and attached himself to the next offspring from the Rockwood bloodline. But he hadn’t, which meant…

“There’s a loophole,” she whispered and locked eyes with the Devil who sat across from her on the bed. He looked at her like she had lost her mind. There were no loopholes when it came to souls and their destruction. When souls ‘died’ while in Hell they were released back into the land of the living and attached to the eldest of their bloodline, if there was no one left in the bloodline to attach to, that was it. Their cycle was over.

“No,” he shook his head. “You’re mistaken, there is no loophole, Serenity. Sapphire should have been reborn in the eldest of the bloodline if what you say is true and my bloodline continued on.”

“No, there _is_ a loophole, there has to be,” she whispered. “How else did I speak to him while I was up there? Who else took her after the battle with Beryl was over? Who helped her with Darien?” 

“Darien? Who is he?”

“Not important right now,” she waved him off as she continued to think. She had to know what the loophole was. She had to talk to Sapphire again. “That’s it!” She looked up with triumph. “I’ll just talk to him again, and prove to you that he still exists.”

“And how exactly are you going to do that, my love?” Endymion asked as he started to worry over Serenity’s sanity. _This_ was exactly what he had been afraid of ever since the battle with Beryl eight days ago. He didn’t know what she did to finally destroy Beryl’s soul, but whatever it was, it had taken a lot out of her. So much, that obviously she was starting to lose her mind a little bit. 

Serenity seemed to realize her dilemma and the light in her eyes dimmed. “Good question…” she murmured. The last time she had seen Sapphire, he had come of his own free will to take Serena away. Maybe if he was watching? She shook her head that sounded crazy even to _her_. She sighed. So much for that plan…

“And you wonder why I insist on keeping you on bed rest,” Endymion murmured as he placed his hand over hers. “You are still exhausted from the battle with Beryl. You need your rest, Serenity. Maybe once you’re fully rested we can have a long logical explanation about everything…”

“Logical?” She glared at him. “Does any of _this_ seem logical to you? If there is anything that I have learned while being down here it’s that nothing is logical anymore. The crazier the idea, the more it goes as norm down here. Sapphire is still in existence, Endymion, and I swear one way or another I will prove it to you, even if I have to leave and drag his sorry ass back down here!”

“There will be no need for that, Serenity,” a familiar voice said from the entrance to their room. Endymion recognized the voice too, even though it had been almost five hundred years since he had last heard it. He whipped his head around and stared. _I’ll be damned,_ he thought to himself as his eyes landed on his great-great-great grandfather. “Hello, Endymion, it’s been a while.”

The Devil looked at his relative with a look of surprise and disdain. Although it had been several centuries since they had last seen each other, the Devil still remembered the last time they had. It had been his wedding day, the most important day of his life, but not for the reason that he originally thought as it would turn out. No, instead of being married to the love of his life that day, he had found her bloodied corpse in her wedding dress and this man who had claimed to be his relative standing over her body. So he had done what any sane man would have. He avenged his fiancée’s death. Only he hadn’t known that by doing so, he was committing the biggest mistake of his life.

Well, he interrupted his reverie as he glanced back at the woman beside him on the bed, maybe not the biggest. Because if he hadn’t have killed Sapphire, he would never had gotten the chance to be with his long lost love again…or at least, her reincarnation. Still, there was no love lost between the Devil and his relative, and you would think after five centuries he would have moved on…

“Sapphire,” he said through gritted teeth. “The last time I saw you, I killed you. How is that you’re not dead?”

“Oh, I am,” his great-great-great grandfather reassured him. “You did in fact kill me five hundred years ago, Endymion, but like most souls who are killed in the land of the living, I have unfinished business to attend to. And because of that I haven’t moved on yet.”

“That’s it!” Serenity exclaimed. “That’s the loophole, isn’t it?” Endymion glanced at her confused before he saw Sapphire’s smile.

“Just like Serena, you are quite brilliant. Yes, my dear, that is the loophole.”

“What are the two of you talking about?” He asked his mind clouded over with confusion. He turned to the former Devil. “What loophole? And how do you know of Serena when you’re the one who killed her?”

Sapphire tilted his head to the left and glanced at his great-great-great grandson. Apparently, after five hundred years, the man still hadn’t forgiven him for his past transgressions, even if those transgressions were false. “You haven’t told him everything, have you?” He asked Serenity.

“No, I was still trying to have him wrap his head around the fact that his bloodline still continues,” she replied. “But he’s still having difficulty with that idea.” She glared at Endymion and he winced. _What did he do now?_ He thought and exchanged looks between the two of them. His mind was still muddled with confusion as to how these two had met and why they had been on such good terms. He had told her about this man before them, and how he had been the one to kill Serena all those years ago. So why was she talking to him as if they were old friends? Wasn’t she concerned about what he had done in his past?

“What is this everything that you two keep going on about?” He asked. “And how can you talk to him like he’s just an old friend that you haven’t seen in a while, Serenity? Don’t you know what this man has done? Didn’t I tell you?”

She sighed. “Endymion, what you told me was a lie. There was more to that story than even you knew at the time. But maybe if Sapphire tells you, you’ll see how it _is_ possible that your bloodline continues, and maybe you’ll also see what I mean by the loophole. Sapphire?”

“Now, Endymion, you obviously remember the day of your wedding.”

“How could I forget?” He scoffed and gave the man in front of him a pointed look. Serenity sighed and punched him lightly in the arm. “Hey, what was that for?” She glared at him.

“Right, right…sorry, continue.”

“Well, the events of that day weren’t as clean cut as they seem,” Sapphire continued. “You entered Serena’s dressing room and saw her body, then I appeared and made a few choice comments about her death and how it could have been prevented. You instantly thought I was the one who killed her, so you killed me for my crimes. By killing me, you became the new Devil.”

“I know all of this already,” Endymion said disdain evident in his voice. “Get to the point.”

“I wasn’t the one who killed Serena.”

“What?” Was the only reply that he could muster.

“I wasn’t the one who killed Serena,” Sapphire repeated. “And I know what you are going to say, but please, be quiet and let me explain. A few weeks before I made myself known to you, I had been keeping an eye on you. I witnessed as you declared your love for Serena, and that same day rumors had reached my ears. Bethany had been heard whining to her cousin that she was going to be a disgrace to the family because even though she was _supposed_ to be married to you, you had refused her and she was with child.” Endymion opened his mouth as if to say something but Sapphire held up a hand and continued to speak.

“A few weeks later, I made myself known to you. But I could not tell you who I was yet. As it happens, the first time we spoke you were on your way to propose to Serena. By the time I went to you again the whole town knew of the engagement. Including Bethany. She was forming a plot to kill her and take you for herself.

“When I told you that I was the Devil and that you were the next in line for the title, you didn’t believe me. Thinking of the plot on Serena’s life, I threatened her, hoping it would change your mind. Surely with you gone, Serena’s life would be spared. But you cast me out, thought I was insane.

“On the day of your wedding, I went to go check on Serena to find Bethany slipping out of her room a smile on her face. I rushed in and found Serena dead. But her spirit remained. I told her who I was and what you were destined to become and she told me that I had to pretend to be her murderer. She knew that you would not be with Bethany and would probably kill yourself if you couldn’t spend your life with Serena. If you had someone else to blame for her death you would go after him.”

Endymion was quiet for what seemed like hours but was only a few minutes. Serenity watched him with a worried heart; she knew that this was a lot of information to take in, which is why she didn’t want to tell him. But things had changed. He _needed_ to know now. She hesitatingly put a comforting hand on his shoulder, and he took it in his grasp. He squeezed it gently before turning to his relative. 

“Why did Serena make you the murderer though?” He asked.

“Because she knew that you would kill Bethany,” Serenity replied. “And she didn’t want you to murder her when she was with child.”

“So, that means, Bethany had my child?” He whispered, his voice strained.

“Yes.” His grip on Serenity’s hand increased and she tried to squeeze back, but he was lost in his memories. She looked up at Sapphire who gave her a reassuring look. They both knew that he needed to know this information. It was past time that he knew.

“And my bloodline?” Endymion asked and turned his eyes on Serenity.

“Continues,” she replied. “Remember the man I worked for?”

“The doctor?”

“Yes, his name is Darien Shields and he is your great grandson many times over,” she smiled at him. “You’d be proud of him.”

He nodded and then looked at the two of them for the first time. Serenity tried not to gasp, but it was hard. She had never seen his eyes this filled with emotion since she had declared her love for him and when she had come back from the land of the living to fight for him. But even that was different than the emotions that she saw in his eyes now. “And you found all of this out when you went back up.” He pointed above them. Serenity nodded.

He stood up and took his hand from hers. She watched him with wary eyes, not sure what he was going to do. He approached Sapphire and hugged him. “Thank you,” he said. “If it wasn’t for you, she never would have come back to me.”

“Of course,” Sapphire replied.

Endymion released him and took a step back. “So, wait, there’s still something I don’t understand. Darien and Serenity were meant to be together originally, weren’t they? But because she died and is down here with me, who does he end up with?”

“I didn’t understand that either,” Serenity replied. “But that’s another long story…” she trailed off and looked into his eyes. He urged her with them to tell him. “Okay, well, after Sapphire told me the truth about Serena’s death and how your bloodline continued, I realized that I had to come back here because Bethany was Beryl and she was going to do everything in her power to make sure that she finally got you.

“Sapphire helped me, by casting a spell that would send me back here, but Beryl had already planned for my return. She had cast a counter spell blocking anyone from coming to Hell. I hit that barrier full force and was cast back out, but this time I was sent into limbo. I wasn’t alone there; Beryl had also cast Serena out of Hell. She had been watching over us, and she wanted her revenge on Beryl for everything that she had done. So we teamed up and with Raye’s help we came back.”

“So that’s how you defeated Beryl,” Endymion murmured. “I’ve been wondering for the last eight days. There would be no way that you could resist Beryl’s magic, but now that I know that Serena was with you…it all makes sense. So what happened to her?”

“We both thought that once Beryl was defeated, Serena would move on. But when Beryl was destroyed, she didn’t move on. That’s when Sapphire appeared and explained that Serena still had something to do, that Fate had another plan for her. It wasn’t until after they had left that I had figured it out. Since I was down here with you, Darien was left by himself up there. The balance needed to be righted and who better to fill my shoes than Serena?”

“But how could Serena fill your shoes? She’s dead.”

“That’s where I came in,” Sapphire interrupted. “I cast another spell that gave Serena back a physical body and I was also able to get her an apartment in the same complex as Darien.”

Endymion stood there completely stunned. It was one thing to find out that the bloodline that he had thought had run out with him, had continued on, but it was another thing to find out that the former love of his life was alive again and trying to seduce the same member of his bloodline. What was worse was that Serenity had known about it all and hadn’t told him. What was she thinking? He had to know this! He had to know that he had an heir…

“Wait a minute,” he said a thought coming to him. “If I still have a bloodline that means Darien is supposed to inherit Hell from me.”

“Yes,” Sapphire said.

“If you know that Darien is supposed to inherit Hell from me, why would you try and set him up with Serena? He’s only going to leave her and soon.”

“Wait,” Serenity interrupted. “What are you talking about leave her and soon?”

“The anniversary of my ascension is coming soon,” he explained. “It will be five hundred years since I’ve taken the throne in three months. According to the laws, the eldest of my bloodline at that mark needs to be informed of his inheritance and make the appropriate preparations.”

“Which means that in three months, Darien will be ruling Hell and you will be moving on,” she whispered as realization dawned on her. She knew that there had been a five hundred rule, but she hadn’t realized that it would be coming so soon. Her time with Endymion was now limited. Her heart saddened at the new information.

“But there won’t be anything for me to move on to,” he said sadly. “I doubt Darien has had any offspring, which means that when he becomes the Devil my life cycle will come to an end.” His head drooped.

“Wait,” Serenity said before the sadness consumed her. “The loophole!” She exclaimed her mind working over time. She had thought of it before their explanations of events, but she had forgotten while they had been speaking. She looked at Sapphire. “That’s the reason you’re still here, and not attached to the eldest in the Rockwood line. Endymion killed you in the land of the living, you weren’t in Hell so your soul couldn’t move on.”

“As I said before, Serenity,” the man said with a smile on his face. “You are quite intelligent. Yes, that’s why I haven’t moved on since Endymion killed me. To move on and attach myself to the next eldest in the line, I would have had to be in Hell. But since I was in the land of the living, I ‘live’ on.” 

“And how does that help me?” Endymion asked.

“Well, if you wish to remain in the world, make sure that Darien kills you while you are in the land of the living,” Sapphire explained. “But I doubt that will make you happy, which is why I am going to give you another loophole.”

Serenity and Endymion exchanged looks with each other. Another loophole? They thought they were lucky with just the one, now there was another?

“Another loophole? What is it?” She asked curiosity getting the better of her.

“Endymion actually mentioned it earlier,” Sapphire explained. “Darien’s offspring.”

“What about them?” She asked. “I’m with Endymion, even though those two have been going at it like rabbits, I doubt that they’ll get pregnant that fast. So why are we talking about offspring?” She ignored the look Endymion was giving her when she said that Serena and Darien had been going at it like rabbits. It probably hadn’t been a good idea for her to mention _that. Oh well…_ she thought. He shouldn’t have been too surprised that they had been already having sex.

“That’s your loophole though,” Sapphire pointed out. “I didn’t figure it out until about a hundred years after Endymion had taken over. The only reason I was able to pass the throne over to him was because his bloodline had been continued, because Bethany was pregnant with his child. Before Endymion can pass the throne onto Darien, Darien has to have a child.”

* * *

Several weeks later, Darien was the happiest man alive. His relationship with Serena could not have been better. She was an amazing receptionist, even better than her sister had been, and after work she was an even better girlfriend. After the first few days, they had finally stopped wanting to tear each other’s clothes off – well, not really, but even they needed a break – and when they weren’t having sex they would talk for long periods of time about each other. This was the closest he had let a woman into his life before. There wasn’t much that she didn’t know about him. However, even though they were always talking about each other, there were some things that Darien felt that Serena was holding back from him. He didn’t want to pry, but sometimes curiosity got the best of him.

Like today for instance, Serena and him were going to lunch before they went to see a movie, but they hadn’t said a word to each other since they left the apartment. Now, normally, this wouldn’t be cause for concern, but the expression on her face told him differently. She was thinking and she was thinking really hard about something. So hard in fact that she didn’t seem to realize that he had turned off to go into the restaurant he had decided on taking her to for lunch or that a woman was coming at her, distracted by something in front of her.

“Sere!” He called out, but it was too late. The woman had collided with Serena head on. They both crumpled to the ground below them.

* * *

“I am so sorry!” I exclaimed as I gathered myself up from the sidewalk. I lent down to pick up the piece of paper that had dropped from the woman’s fingertips when I noticed what it was.

It was a picture of _me._ The woman snatched the picture from my hand. “It’s okay, it was both our faults. We were distracted,” she said, her voice friendly. Then she looked up. Her mouth hung open as she stared at me. Her glance shifted towards the picture in her hand before drifting back up to me. 

“Serena, are you all right?” Darien asked as he came rushing to my side. He offered me his hand and with his help I stood up. He offered his hand to the woman I had run into as well. She gratefully took it and stood before walking away. She kept glancing back at me, and I stared after her. That was weird. Why would she have a picture of me?

“Serena?”

“I’m fine,” I replied. “I just should have looked where I was going.” I smiled up at him as he ushered me off towards the restaurant that he had chosen for lunch. 

* * *

Emerald walked away from the woman she had run into with such haste, one would have thought the hounds of hell were at her heals. She had looked at the picture of Serenity Anderson’s sister that Seiya had given her at the end of their meeting a few weeks ago and was still looking at it when she had run into an innocent woman on the street. When she had looked up, she had been shocked to see the woman from the photo she had been looking at. It was bad enough that she was already late for a meeting, but to run into the girl too?

“It’s just not my day today,” she thought to herself and continued on her way. Seiya had insisted that she meet with these people who could help them take care of the problem that was Serenity Anderson’s sister. How they could help was beyond her, but she didn’t feel like blowing them off. Not when Seiya was going to be there. If there was one thing she had learned while she had been Diamond’s girlfriend, it was that the Chambers were a nasty family to be on the wrong side of. She shook her head and stopped her walking. She had reached the building.

She walked inside and was greeted instantly.

“Hello?” A woman with short blonde hair greeted her at the door. “Can I help you with something?”

“Yes, I’m supposed to be meeting with a woman named Anne,” Emerald replied. “I believe an associate of mine, Seiya is already here?”

“Oh, yes, he is,” the woman said. “I’m Haruka, if you’ll just follow me.” The two took off down the hall and stopped outside a conference room. The blinds that were on the windows were drawn closed. The woman – Haruka – knocked on the door and another woman with auburn hair that was down to her shoulders opened the door.

“Yes?”

“This woman is meeting with you,” she replied. “She’s an associate of Seiya’s.”

“Oh, Emerald, you’re here,” the aforementioned man said from within the room. The woman whose name she didn’t know opened the door and ushered her in. She whispered something to the blonde before closing the door.

“So, you are Ms. Richardson,” the woman said as she took a seat at the conference table. “We were waiting for you. Can I get you anything?”

“No,” Emerald shook her head. “Let’s just get this over with.”

“Now, why are you two here today?”

“Did you bring the picture?” Seiya asked her. She nodded her head and slid the picture over to the woman who she could only assume was Anne. “This woman, her name is Serena Anderson and we’d like to contract a hit on her.” 

* * *

Anne blinked as she looked at the picture in front of her. The woman in the picture – this Serena Anderson – looked awfully familiar, but she couldn’t figure out from where she had seen her. Her brain ran through the possibilities as she stared at the two people seated in front of her. They wanted to kill this woman? What the hell had she’d ever done to them? As much as she wanted to ask the question, she knew that she couldn’t. Haruka had run her through the protocols for something like this on her first day.

“I’m not sure I understand what you mean, Mr. Chambers,” she answered as she pushed the picture back to him.

The aforementioned Mr. Chambers looked at her with a cool gaze. A gaze that sent shivers up her spine. “Let’s skip your practiced routine, Ms. Langston. I know what it is that you do here at your _company_ and I want to hire you to take care of something for me. I am not a cop, I have plans for revenge and if you cooperate you will be part of them.” He slid the picture back towards her. 

Anne sighed. How was it he knew the protocols she had to go through to make sure everything was cop esthetic? She got out of her seat, “Okay, Mr. Chambers, let me get my supervisor.”

“No,” he said sternly and she froze her hand on the door.

“No?” She repeated.

“I’ll throw in another fifteen if we keep Haruka out of this.”

She hesitated, knowing that Haruka would want to know about this. Especially because it would be her first contract hit since she started. But fifteen extra? She could finally get that house that she had her eye on…she turned back to Mr. Chambers and Ms. Richardson and sat back down. “Okay,” she said. “I’m assuming because you knew about the protocols that you know what happens next?”

“Yes,” he replied with a smile on his face. “You do recon, figure out her patterns, who she’s close to so you can find a way in.”

“Right, now the amount of recon I need to do depends on your timetable. When do you want her killed?”

“After Valentine’s Day,” he replied instantly. Anne raised an eyebrow, but tried not to judge. She knew from experience that some clients had weird fetishes. Apparently, Mr. Chambers was one of them.

“Very well, I’ll get to work.” She stood up watching as Ms. Richardson and Mr. Chambers got up as well. She showed them to the door.

“I’ll send you the first part of my payment by the end of the week,” Mr. Chambers said before he exited the building, Ms. Richardson on his heals. Anne watched them go before turning back to start on her new project. Haruka was waiting for her in her office when she returned.

“Good meeting?” She asked.

“Strenuous,” Anne replied and sat down in her seat. “Guy was a total jerk, I’m still not sure as to why the woman was there.”

“She probably had her reasons. So who’s the target?”

“Some dirty business executive,” Anne lied smoothly.

Haruka watched her, and she felt her palms start to sweat. Well, she thought she had lied smoothly. Just before she was about to blurt out the truth, the blonde nodded and left her office. She sat back and breathed a deep sigh of relief. It probably wasn’t a smart idea to lie to her new boss, considering that she had taken a chance and given her the job. But when Mr. Chambers had said an extra fifteen, she couldn’t resist the offer. She shook her head and began to research her target.

* * *

Outside the office building, Emerald was trying to keep her temper under control, but she wasn’t succeeding. She knew better than to burst out though in the middle of the public street. But when her and Seiya were in private she was going to rip him a new one, she didn’t care what connections he had. What was he thinking? As if sensing her anger, Seiya ushered her into a nearby alley and she let him have it.

“What the hell was that?” She shrieked. “When I agreed to your insane idea, _this_ was not what I had in mind! What your planning on is…” she lowered her voice. “Murder,” she whispered.

“Premeditated murder,” he replied. “And yes, I know what I’m planning. What did you think I meant when I said I had a plan to go after Serenity Anderson’s family? A bonding psychotherapy session?”

“No, but that’s obviously what you need,” she seethed. “Forget my shares of the company, I’m done with this. I want no part of it.” She turned to walk away, when she heard him chuckle a dark laugh. That laugh could not be good. She turned back and stared at him. “What’s so damn funny?” She demanded. 

“The fact that you think you can get out of this,” he replied. “You were with me at the meeting, if I wanted to I could go to the police and tell them you’re an accessory to premeditated murder that’s five to ten years tops. But then again, it might feel longer to you, because I don’t think you’d do well in prison.”

Emerald open and closed her mouth trying to find a respectable retort, but she was at a loss. “You wouldn’t dare,” she finally said, but she knew what he would say before the words came out of his mouth.

“Of course I would. I think you underestimate what I would do to make sure my brother rests in peace.”

She glared at him. “You’re despicable.”

He laughed again as he walked past her, “You have no idea, Emerald. No idea.”


	6. Shots of Truth

It was another regular day at work, and I was slowly going out of my mind. I had already taken care of the billing, I had called the next day’s appointments to remind them of their appointment, and I had even re-alphabetized the patient charts. Darien still had two more appointments for the day, one a new patient, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to survive until that last appointment. I probably should have brought a book. Since I had died, a lot of books had come out that looked like something I would want to read. I sighed and set a mental reminder for myself to stop by a bookstore on the way home.

The door to the office opened and I looked to find Andrew and Sapphire walking towards my desk. I glared at them openly and they looked hurt when they finally reached me.

“Are you two _crazy_?” I seethed my voice barely above a whisper. “What are you going to do when Darien walks in here? You’re supposed to dead,” I said to Andrew. “And you look just like him. You don’t think he’s going to start asking questions?” 

“I’m surprised you aren’t asking them,” Sapphire said.

“What?”

“Why do you think we’re here?” Andrew asked. “You know we wouldn’t jeopardize coming to see you if there wasn’t a reason.”

“Okay,” I said looking back towards Darien’s office and the patient rooms to make sure that he wasn’t coming out here with his patient. “Why are you two here?”

“Beryl’s back,” Sapphire said.

My head snapped around to look at him. “Say that again, because I don’t think I heard you right.”

“No, you heard him right,” Andrew said. “Beryl is back.”

“In Hell?” I asked.

“No, here.”

“What?”

“Apparently, Sapphire forgot to mention that when a soul is destroyed in Hell that soul comes back to the land of the living and attaches itself to the eldest member of their bloodline.”

I blinked not sure that I could believe what I was hearing. “So Beryl is here?”

“Yes,” Sapphire said. “But before you ask, no, I don’t know who her bloodline is. I lost track of her after she went to Hell during the witch trials.”

I bit my lip. Fantastic. This was exactly the kind of news that I needed to hear. _Not._ Darien and I were already having issues because he could tell that I wasn’t telling him something, and now this? Damn it. I was going to lose him unless I told him the truth and soon. 

“Crap,” I muttered.

“Serena,” Andrew whispered. “I think it’s time you told Darien what was going on.”

“No,” I replied. “I can’t.”

“Yes, you can,” Sapphire said. “Besides, now that Beryl is back in play, I’m not sure you have a choice anymore. If I were her, I’d come after you and Darien, and if that happens he’s going to need to be warned about her. He’s going to need to know what is going on.”

I sighed knowing that they were both right. I had put this off long enough, it was time Darien knew and maybe, if I was lucky, he wouldn’t hate me. I nodded my head and they both disappeared, just in time for Darien to come back with his previous patient and for the new patient to walk in the door. I smiled at the new patient, a smile that fell when I took in her appearance. She was tall, around 5’9’’ and her auburn hair went just past her shoulders. She had brown eyes that reminded me of tree bark and her skin was almost as pale as mine.

In my past life, I had known her as Bethany.

Serenity had known her as Beryl.

She was indeed back.

“Serena,” Darien said distracting me from the woman. “Mr. Lewis is all set.”

“Right,” I turned my attention to the man standing next to him. I gave him a small smile as I handed him a small card that held his next appointment. “You’re all set, Mr. Lewis, your next appointment will be in May next year.”

“Thanks, darlin’,” he said and nodded at me before leaving the office.

The woman who had walked in approached the counter. “Hi, my name is Anne Langston, I’m here for my appointment.”

I tried to give her a smile, but I was pretty sure that it came out as a grimace. I don’t know why I was being so mean to her; it wasn’t her fault that she had been born to a bloodline that had _seriously_ screwed mine over in the past. “Yes, Ms. Langston, we’ve been expecting you. If you could fill these forms out, we’ll take you right away.” I handed her a clipboard that had a stack of forms on them with a pen. 

“Of course,” she replied and went to sit down in the waiting room. I turned my attention to Darien who lingered by my desk. I prayed that he hadn’t seen my grimace/smile at the new patient earlier, but I was guessing that he had since he really didn’t miss much.

“Do you know her?” He asked.

“You could say that,” I muttered. “We’re still on for dinner later, right?”

“Of course, we are,” he said as he kept staring at me. “Why?”

“No reason.” _Except that I’m going to tell you everything and you might hate me afterwards, or think I’m insane. Or both_ , I thought in my head and watched the woman scribble furiously on the paperwork. She stood up and came back my way. She handed me the paperwork and I skimmed it to make sure it was okay. I removed some sheets and put them in a folder, which I then handed to Darien. 

“Anne?” Darien asked. “I’m Darien Shields, your doctor, if you’d follow me we can get started.” Anne sent him a lusty smile and followed him back to his office. I sat there and watched her leave. I could only imagine the sort of shenanigans that were going to go on behind that door, at least, the ones she was going to start and Darien would finish. He wouldn’t cheat on me. He lo- I shook my head, he _cared_ for me. As soon as I heard the door close behind them, I typed in her information into a file on the computer before I whipped out my cell phone and made a few phone calls.

If I was going to tell Darien the truth tonight, I was going to need back up. _Lots_ of it. 

* * *

Haruka and Michelle were enjoying an early dinner when Haruka’s cell phone went off in the other room. She glanced across to her lover who looked into the other room with such disdain that she thought the phone was going to explode.

“You’d better answer it, it could be something important,” she seethed. Haruka sighed and got up from the table. When she reached her phone, she saw that it was Serena’s number.

“Serena?” She answered.

“Haruka,” the woman said on the other phone. “Is Michelle with you?”

“Yeah, she’s right here, hang on.” Haruka walked back into the room and Michelle looked up surprised. “It’s Serena,” she mouthed and put the phone on speaker. “Okay, Serena, we’re both here. What’s going on?”

“Remember that woman I told you about?”

“Yeah, Beryl, right?” Michelle asked.

“Right, well, she’s back.”

“What?” The two exclaimed in shock. “How is it possible that she’s back? I thought she was killed again in Hell?” Haruka asked.

“Yeah, well, what _some_ people didn’t bother telling me, was that when a soul – like Beryl – is destroyed in Hell, they leave Hell, but they go back to the land of the living and attach themselves to the eldest in their bloodline.”

“Oh, shit,” Michelle said. “So what does this mean for you?”

“I think it means that I have to tell Darien the truth,” Serena explained. “Especially since I’ve already met her.”

 _“What?”_ The couple exclaimed again.

“Yeah, she came into the office a few moments after Sapphire and Andrew told me that she was back. She’s a new patient of Darien’s, but I don’t think she recognized me.”

“Do you have her name?” Haruka asked. “’Cause if you do I can run a background search on her, see what this chick has been up to since she’s been born.”

“Her name is Anne Langston.”

Haruka’s mouth dropped open and Michelle looked at her confused as to why.

“Haruka?” She asked. “What’s going on?”

“Serena, you need to get out of there. You need to get out of there _now._ ”

* * *

Anne looked with appreciation at her new _doctor_ , and she swore under her breath. If she had known doctors looked like _that_ she would have gone to hers more often. Man, this job had perks…she wondered briefly if he was single, but instantly waved away the thought. It wouldn’t do to think about that. She had made a rule to herself when she had gotten into this business – _never_ get involved with anyone who was connected to her targets. It wouldn’t end well for anyone. There were so many hazards…

“So why did you make this appointment today?” The doctor’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

“Oh, it’s just time for me to have a check-up,” she replied with a smile on her face.

“All right,” he said. “Well, there’s a dressing gown and if you go into the bathroom there’s a container for the urine test. I’ll be back in ten minutes.” He walked out of the room to give her privacy and she watched his backside leave. She wondered briefly what that ass would look like in a pair of jeans.

* * *

Darien walked to the front of his office to talk to Serena for a few minutes while his new patient got ready for her check up. When he approached the front desk, he saw that Serena wasn’t in her usual seat. In fact, she wasn’t even in the building. _Where did she go?_ He thought and went towards the door. He saw her familiar blonde hair and relaxed a little bit. The only question was, why was she outside?

* * *

I stood outside Darien’s office with my cell phone against my ear. “Okay, I’m standing outside the building. Now, what’s going on, Haruka?” I asked.

“Outside the building is not good enough, Serena. You have to get out of there, period. Go home, we’ll meet you there and talk to you about what’s going on.” The call ended and I looked at the phone as I pulled it away from my ear. Something must be really wrong if Haruka was telling me to get out of there. I sighed and went back into the building, to find Darien staring at me like I was crazy.

“Is there a reason that you were standing outside?” He asked, his voice having the same tone that I had only heard once before, and that was back when he thought I was a con woman. _Okay,_ I thought, _what the hell did I do now?_

“Haruka called,” I explained. “Apparently, Michelle and her need to talk to me at home. So I’ll be leaving early.” I walked to my chair and picked up my purse from the floor. “Anne’s insurance company has already been sent an invoice for any work that has been done today. I’ll see you later.” Without another glance in his direction I walked out the door. Even though, the whole way I could feel his penetrating gaze on my back. _  
_

* * *

When I got off the elevator on my floor, the couple was already waiting for me at my door. I approached them, fumbling slightly with my keys. As soon as the door was unlocked, I ushered them inside and closed the door behind us.

“Okay, what the hell is going on?” I asked my voice going up an octave. “Darien already thinks that something is going on. Now, with me leaving his office like this he’ll definitely know something is up.”

“Are you sure that Anne is the descendent from Beryl’s bloodline?” Haruka asked as she sat down on the couch.

“Yes, I’d know her anywhere. Her looks have slightly changed, but that’s to be expected with genealogy. So, what is it about her that made you tell me to get the hell out of Darien’s office?”

“She’s the girl I hired to take Serenity’s place.”

I stood there for a second letting what she had just said sink into my brain. Anne had been hired to take Serenity’s place in Haruka’s company. Serenity had been a hired assassin…. “Oh,” I said my voice small. “But wait why should that be a concern? Anne didn’t recognize who I was. It’s not like she was hired to kill me.”

“Serena’s got a point, Haruka,” Michelle said. “So she just happened to walk into the office where Serena works, it’s probably just a coincidence.”

“I’m not so sure,” Haruka replied biting her lip. “Something isn’t right here…Anne comes to work for me – taking over Serenity’s old spot – and then she walks into the same office where Serena works? Are you sure she didn’t recognize you?”

“Positive.” I sat in a chair that was located next to the couple. Anne had definitely not recognized me this afternoon. Or at least, I don’t _think_ she did. She could have been hiding it, so that way I wouldn’t be alarmed that Beryl’s descendent was back in my life and knew who I was. _  
_

“You’re just overreacting, hon,” Michelle said. “You’re probably still not used to working with Anne, especially because you don’t really know her.”

“No, it’s definitely more than that. Something isn’t right here, I can feel it. I just don’t know what…” she put her chin on her palm, her eyes closed as she was thinking about what could possibly be wrong. “You know, I think I figured it out. Anne had a few clients walk in a few months ago, and she told me that they had taken out a hit on a corrupt businessman, but there was something in her eyes when she told me that. I think she was lying.”

“Who were these people?” I asked. “What did they look like?”

“There was a man named Seiya who was about six foot and had long brown hair that he pulled into a ponytail, and the other was a woman who also had long brown hair, but hers was wavy and she had striking green eyes. Her name was Emerald.”

The description of the woman sent a spark of recognition through me as my minds eye played back an incident from a few months ago. I had run into a woman who had looked just like Haruka described and she had been carrying a picture of me… “Oh shit,” I muttered.

“What?” Haruka asked.

“You’re right, Anne was lying to you. The woman you described, this Emerald? I ran into her on the street a few months ago while Darien was taking me to lunch. She was holding a piece of paper, when we collided she dropped it, so I picked it up for her. It was a picture of me.” I looked at the two of them.

“So, this Emerald and Seiya, they ordered a hit on you?” Michelle asked. “Why would they do that?”

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t either,” Haruka asked. “But I’ll find out. Until we figure it out, you have to be careful. I have a feeling that even if I tried to, Anne won’t back off this case. Try not to go out into public. Not even for your job.”

“I doubt that that will be a problem,” I sighed as I remembered the reason why I called the two of them in the first place. They shot me questioning looks and I explained. “The reason I called, remember? I’m telling Darien the truth tonight, especially now that Anne is out there, and wants to kill me. He’s already been asking questions and wondering what’s been going on with me.”

“Why did you call us anyway?” Michelle asked.

“Just in case for some crazy reason, he doesn’t believe me,” I replied. “I thought that maybe you two could talk to him about why he _should_.”

“Of course we will,” Haruka said. “So when is he coming?”

“Probably as soon as he’s done examining Anne.”

“Wait, you left him with Anne, even though you know that she’s Beryl’s descendent? She could make a move on him!” Michelle exclaimed.

“No, she won’t,” I said with confidence. “He barely looked twice at her when she came in. Besides, since she didn’t recognize me I bet she didn’t recognize him either.”

“I hope you’re right, Serena,” Michelle commented and I couldn’t help but agree with her. The truth was that I didn’t know if he would dare make a move on her, not with the way our relationship had been lately. Sure, we had been hot and heavy there for a few, but the reality of what I’d been doing had hit me. I was sleeping with Darien, pretending to be Serenity’s sister, because I had my own agenda. I was here to balance Fate. I had to tell this man the truth, and I had come close to doing it so many times since. But every time I tried, I would look at him and think _I don’t want this man to hate me_ because it was already too late for me. I was head over heals in love, but I wasn’t sure he was in love with me. 

* * *

Darien went through the rest of Anne’s check up like a zombie. His head was in the clouds as he thought about Serena and her strange behavior for the last few months. Her head had been in the clouds too. Whenever he walked away and came back, her eyes were distant. She was thinking about something, and he just didn’t know what. He didn’t like the fact that she was keeping secrets from him. The last girl that had done that – well, the last girl who had done that was Serenity and he knew very well how that had ended. But he doubted that she was a contract killer like her sister.

Well, sort of. It was making him nervous that she was spending so much time talking to Haruka, the one who had gotten Serenity into that business in the first place. But what could he do? Every time he got the nerve up to ask her about what was going on her head, he stopped and looked at her before thinking _I don’t ever want her to leave me_. The first time he had thought that thought, it had scared him. He for sure thought that he would never love anyone again, not after Serenity. But the next time he had that same thought he realized that he had been wrong. He could love another, and he _did_. He was in love with Serena. 

He was going to tell her tonight, but with the way she had run off, he wasn’t so sure that that was what he wanted to do. Instead he might actually sit down and have that conversation with her, the one that was completely overdue. He sighed as he scribbled some last notes.

“Is everything okay?” Anne asked him. “That sigh didn’t sound so good.”

“No, no, everything’s fine,” he replied. “Your test results will be back in tomorrow, but so far you seem to have a clean bill of health, Ms. Langston.”

“Please, call me Anne,” she said throwing him a smile. If he had been any other man, it would have disarmed him, but Darien was who he was and he was completely in love with Serena. Anne’s smile was nothing compared to hers. “In fact, I usually don’t do this, but you and I should have dinner.”

Darien raised an eyebrow at her bluntness. “Thanks, but no thanks, Anne. I’m in a relationship with someone.”

Her cheeks flushed red. “Oh,” was her only response.

He cleared his throat to disrupt the awkwardness. “Um, right. So, you’re all set. My secretary Serena will call you with the results from your test sometime tomorrow.” He opened the door to the examining room and Anne walked out of the room. He followed her to the front door and was about to turn around and close things up for the night when she turned to him.

“Keep my number on file, Darien,” she said. “Because I have a feeling that you won’t be in a relationship with whomever it is for much longer.” Before he had a chance to reply, she walked out the door and into the fading light of the day. He watched her leave his mouth hanging open. What the hell had she meant by _that?_ Or was it that easy for her to read his mind? He shook his head and went to close down the office so that way he could go home and have a long conversation with Serena.

* * *

The three of us sat in silence as we waited for Darien to come home. My thoughts were whirling with all the new information I had learned today. Beryl wasn’t destroyed. Anne was a member of Beryl’s bloodline. Anne was also a hired assassin who had been hired to kill me. As I continued to think, I wondered why I had decided to come back to life. The afterlife had been much easier than actual life was turning out to be. I sighed.

 _Knock-knock._ A familiar knock sounded at my door. I looked up and my gaze met Haruka and Michelle’s. Here it was the moment of truth. The moment where either I was going to lose Darien or… I shook my head to clear my head of that option. I seriously doubted that Darien would take my story as truth. He probably was going to think I was insane or he was going to think I was a sick person. I sighed again and stood up to answer my door. 

When I opened it, I saw Darien and my mind warred with itself again. What was I thinking telling him the truth? He was definitely going to hate me. Why would I chance everything? Why would I lose the man I loved again? But at the same time he had a right to know his lineage. He had a right to know that Serenity had moved on and found peace. He also had a right to know that I wasn’t actually Serenity’s sister. I opened the door wider to invite him inside. He walked in and hesitated for a second when he saw Haruka and Michelle sitting on my couch.

“What are these two doing here?” He asked me a note of regret in his voice. I could understand it. He probably thought that we were going to be alone tonight. But what he didn’t realize was that we were going to finally have a talk that we should have had the night he came here with an injured hand.

“They’re here to help me,” I replied and moved around him.

“Help you? Help you with what?” He asked his brow furrowed in confusion.

“Darien,” I took in a deep breath. “We need to talk.”

He nodded his assent. “Yeah, I know we do. We should have talked a long time ago, Serena, but I thought we should do it alone. Not with an audience. No offense, Haruka and Michelle.”

“None taken,” Michelle said. “But if you’d like we can step into the other room and give you two some privacy. Serena, if you need us just call.” The two stood up and walked into my bedroom. I watched them go with a small bit of annoyance. They were supposed to back me up, not run into another room as soon as Darien said something about privacy. _Damn it_ , I thought. _Oh, well, guess I’m doing this alone._ I went back to my chair and sat down. Darien followed suit and took a seat on the couch the couple had just left. 

“Serena,” he began. “I know that you’ve been hiding something from me for a while now, and at first I didn’t mind, because we were only starting to get to know each other. But now, things have changed for me. I want to know what’s going on. Have you picked up where your sister has left off?”

This time it was my turn to furrow my brow in confusion. What the hell was he talking about? “What? What do you mean picking up where my sister left off?” I asked looking at him like maybe _he_ was the one who had finally lost his mind.

“I mean, dragging me along while all the while you’re living a secret life as a hired assassin,” he replied.

“Is that what you think I’m doing?” I asked slightly appalled. “You really think I’m dragging you along?”

“What else am I supposed to think, Serena? You spend most of the time with your head in the clouds. If you didn’t have to eat, you probably would forget to. And every time I ask you what’s going on, you shrug it off like it’s nothing. But I know different. This is _just_ like your sister acted before she got herself killed.”

I sat back in my chair, rubbing my fingers across my temples. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I whispered. “I’m nothing like my sister, you told me that yourself. And how can I be like her? She was the one who dragged you along, not me. I love you and I’m scared to tell you what I’ve been thinking about, and when I finally get the nerve to tell you, you come barging in here making these ridiculous claims.” I sighed and closed my eyes not catching his startled expression.

“Wait. Back up,” he said. “You love me?”

I opened my eyes and looked at him. Had I really said those words out loud? By the look on his face, it looked like I had. “Yes, I love you, you idiot.”

“Oh, thank God,” he dropped his head. “I thought I was going crazy, by falling in love with you when you didn’t return my feelings. But you do.” He looked up, his eyes blazing with the same emotion I had seen a few months ago.

I smiled slightly. “You love me?”

“Of course, I do, you goof.” He shot me a crooked smile and leaned towards me.

I leaned back, knowing that if I let him kiss me right now I was going to chicken out from telling him the truth. “Wait. As much as I want to kiss you, if I do I won’t tell you what you really want to know.”

He leaned back. “Okay, then tell me.”

“Before I do, do you promise that no matter what I tell you, you’ll still love me?”

He looked at me like I was crazy. “Of course, I will. I can’t just stop loving you, Serena. Even if you tell me you’re a contract killer.”

I tried to smile, but the smile turned into another grimace. That joke was still a little too soon, even though I wasn’t really Serenity’s sister. “Okay, then what I’m about to tell you is going to sound crazy. So crazy, that you might want to commit me into a padded cell. I know how crazy this is going to sound, but believe me when I tell you that this is the truth.”

“Spit it out, already Serena. You’re making me nervous.”

 _Okay, here it goes._ “I’m not Serena’s sister, but we are still related although very distantly. You see, I’m not twenty-four, I’m really over five hundred and forty years-old.” Darien’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth to speak, but I put up my hand to stop him. “Please, don’t say anything until I’m done.” I took in another breath and began to tell him everything that he needed to know. 

At the end of my tale, I sat back in my seat and clenched my hands together. I couldn’t even look at him because I was scared as to what he was going to say to me. I knew it couldn’t be good. I let the silence fall over us, and looked at him between my eyelashes. He sat there, his usually tan face, void of all its color. _Oh, this cannot be a good sign,_ I thought. But I really hadn’t been expecting him to be jumping up and down. Then again, I hadn’t expected him to be this quiet either. I wanted him to at least _say_ something. Even if that thing was that he hated me and never wanted to see me again. At least it would have been words, something to keep myself out of my head.

Darien finally looked up from the spot he had picked on the floor, and I sat up expectedly in my chair. This was it, this was the moment of truth… He got up from his spot on my couch and went to the door. Before I could follow him, he opened the door and turned back to me for a second.

“No,” he said before he walked out the door and closed it behind him, leaving me absolutely speechless. Out of all the scenarios I had played out for the last few weeks, this hadn’t been one of them. What did he mean ‘no?’

Haruka and Michelle walked out of my bedroom as soon as they heard the door close. They approached me with unease. They probably didn’t know what to say either. I didn’t blame them. Confusion was running abundant in this apartment building tonight that was for sure. 

* * *

Darien didn’t remember how he got back to his apartment, all he knew was that he was in his apartment and reaching for the bourbon. He didn’t even bother with a glass, he was in that much need for a drink or two…or three. Or as many as it took to numb the way he was feeling, although he was already feeling pretty numb. He had been feeling numb since Serena had begun her tale. And that was _exactly_ what he was calling it, because there was _no way_ in hell that that story could have been true. 

_Him? A descendent of the Devil? Please._ She had obviously been reading too much paranormal fan fiction. This was the kind of stuff that he wrote when he was trying to crash through writers block, and usually he was never sober. Maybe he should write this down, so that way when he was blocked later he would have some new material and when his reviewers asked where he had gotten the inspiration he could reply that it was his life story. Ha-ha. He took a swig from the bottle. God he needed help if he thought that this was funny and would make for good fan fiction. He took another swig from the bottle. 

How could it be possible that not only had he fallen in love with a contract killer, but he also fell in love with a girl who had lived during the 1500s, if he could really believe what Serena had told him? Was it something about him that attracted the crazy ones? He shook his head and kept drinking. Serena had been alive during the 1500s. She had fallen in love with a man named Endymion…. what was his last name again? Rosewood? Rockefeller? Ah, right, Rockwood. Endymion Rockwood. The name for some reason did ring a bell for him, but he just didn’t know why. He froze the bottle half way back to his lips.

 _No way,_ he thought. _It couldn’t be possible._ Darien dropped the bottle down onto the carpet and stumbled into his bedroom. He scrambled to the closet and found the only box that he had that still belonged to his parents. Inside was the family tree that his mother, he remembered, had worked painstakingly hard on for four months. He gently tugged it out of the box and spread it out on the carpet before him. He traced his finger from himself and his parents, to his grandparents, to his great-great grandparents and so on until he reached a name.

“Holy shit…” he whispered as he stared at the name. The name was Bethany Valney with a line connected to Endymion Rockwood. How could this possibly be? What Serena had been telling him was fiction, wasn’t it? He continued to stare at the name, the letters beginning to blur in front of his eyes. “It can’t be. Everything she said had to been a lie. I can’t be related to the Devil, it just doesn’t make sense…” he said out loud to an empty room.

Well, a room he _thought_ was empty.

“If there’s anything I’ve learned in my five hundred years, boy, it’s that things that can’t be possible are,” a voice said from the window. “I, for one, thought you couldn’t be real, but yet here you are sitting right in front of me.” The man moved and stepped into the light. Darien’s jaw dropped open slightly. Now, either he had too much to drink and was seeing double, or his great many times over grandfather was standing in front of him.

* * *

I sat in silence, curled up in my chair. My head was stuck in the clouds as I thought and replayed the conversation that Darien and I had had. Or at least, what I had told him and the way he had reacted. It still didn’t make sense. He had said one word. _One word!_ I for sure thought that he would have had more to say to me than just no. I thought he was going to yell. I thought he was going to throw things. I hadn’t thought he was going to leave calmly as if I had just told him that polar bears were fuzzy or something. I groaned and gently slammed my head against the cushion behind me. 

God, this whole thing was my damn fault. It was my fault for agreeing to this insane plan. I should have just moved on when I had the chance. But another chance at life and to be with Darien was just too much. I couldn’t resist. I caved into temptation. I had been a fool.

“Okay, somehow, this wasn’t what I expected when I came to visit you, Serena,” a voice said from the doorway. “I, for one, thought for sure that you wouldn’t let Darien mope around in his misery. You’re too headstrong to just let him go like that. But yet, here I stand watching you disappear into your own misery. What’s up?” My head popped up and I stared at the woman who was standing in my doorway. It was Serenity.

“What?” I sat up straight in my chair. “Serenity? What the hell?”

“Well, it’s good to see you too, old friend,” she replied with a smile on her face as she made herself comfortable on the couch that only minutes ago Darien had been sitting on.

“Don’t get me wrong, Serenity, it’s great to see you. But what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be down in Hell with Endymion?”

“Yes, I probably should be, but…” she trailed off and lifted her eyebrows suggestively. “You see, because of the whole Beryl situation, I had to tell Endymion the truth about…well, to put it mildly, everything. So he knows about Darien being his descendent and he wanted to check in on him. I’m pretty sure he also wanted to check in on you too, but I could be wrong.” Her expression mellowed out. Apparently, even after everything the two of them had been through, she still doubted Endymion’s feelings for her.

On any other day I would have consoled her and told her that he loved her for her and not because she looked like me, but today wasn’t one of those days. It was nice to not be the only one whose heart was killing them. “Wait, you’re telling me Endymion is visiting Darien right now?” I asked surprised.

“Yep,” Serenity replied. “We were watching down below and when he saw Darien take off after you told him the truth – a ballsy move by the way – he decided he better come up here and tell him that you were telling the truth. I tagged along to see how you were doing.”

“Well, as you can see terrible,” I said motioning around me. “I shouldn’t have agreed to this, Serenity. I knew that by getting involved with Darien that I would one day have to tell him the truth and I knew that he would probably react badly to the news. But yet, I still went and did it anyway, and what’s worse is that I even went and fell in love with him.” I hung my head, trying to fight tears from coming to my eyes. It had been a while since I had cried. The sensation of tears was a weird one, but yet it felt right. I needed to cry.

“Hey, hey,” Serenity moved from the couch to sit next to me on the chair. She took me into her arms and patted me on the back. “Don’t cry, Serena. You didn’t do anything wrong. So you fell in love with Darien, big whoop. He fell in love with you too. And believe me when I say that he fell in love with you and not just because you look like me.”

“How can you say that? You of all people? You still question whether Endymion loves you for you or because you look like me, and yet you tell me Darien loves me for me? How can I believe that?”

“Because it’s true,” she whispered. “You didn’t watch him like I did, Serena. I watched while you two fell in love with each other, and you need to believe me. It’s because of _you_ not because you look like me.”

“Believe you?” I whispered. “Fine, but if I believe you, you have to believe me. Endymion loves you, Serenity. For you. Not because you look like me.” I repeated her words back to her and she smiled.

“There she is,” she said. “Now, what do you say about going to see Darien and Endymion?”

* * *

The amount of information that you could find on a person on the Internet had always amazed Anne. For instance, she was able to find the apartment that Serena Anderson was living in, on the Internet. Just like she had found her place of employment too, but that was another matter altogether. Right now, she was concentrating on Serena’s apartment. Anne had rented a place right across the street and had set up her equipment so that she could watch Serena without being spotted.

Well, that _had_ been the plan. She has been watching Serena for a few months now. She had found out her patterns and her friends – not that she had any from what Anne had seen. From what she had seen Serena was just a normal girl who didn’t deserve to be taken out and hadn’t spent much time in her apartment. Well, that was she had thought, but after being rejected today by Darien, she decided to move up the plan. She had never been rejected before, and she knew that it was because of Serena, and for some unknown reason Anne felt really angered by this fact. So angered, that she planned on killing Serena tonight. 

When she arrived back at her place, she set up her long-range sniper riffle and watched the blonde through the scope. Anne was shocked when she saw her boss walk through Serena’s door with a woman that she recognized from a picture on Haruka’s desk – her girlfriend. How did Serena know Haurka? More importantly why was Haruka there at Serena’s home? Had she figured out that Anne was lying about the crooked businessman that Seiya and Emerald had hired her to take out? She wished that she had enough time to bug Serena’s place that afternoon so that way she could find out what they were talking about.

Her fingers clenched the trigger of her gun, but she knew that if she shot now Haruka would come searching for her. Haruka knew all the tricks of a hired assassin since she was one herself. Anne’s fingers relaxed against the trigger and continued watching the three women talk. Eventually, she was greeted with the sight of Darien walking into the apartment. So she had been right. Darien and Serena had been dating.

 _Well, not for long,_ Anne thought in her head and tried not to squeeze the trigger even though she was almost red with rage and green with jealousy. The jealousy didn’t last long though, after Serena had spent twenty or so minutes talking, the couple sat for a while without saying or doing anything. Eventually, Darien got up and left the apartment. Serena didn’t go after him. 

Anne’s happiness was short lived though when twenty minutes later someone else walked into Serena’s apartment. Someone she had been told was dead. At first, Anne took the scope from her eye and blinked a few times before putting it back to her eye. When she looked again she knew that she wasn’t seeing things. There were two Serenas in that apartment, and the one that had just entered was actually Serenity – the woman that had been killed almost a year ago. What the hell?

Anne continued to watch, but was thinking too. How could it be possible that Serenity was alive? She had been killed, according to Haruka, on one of her missions. She had been contracted to kill a man by the name of Diamond Chambers, only he had made her and killed her instead – only at first glance it had been a suicide until another man named Andrew had killed Diamond in cold blood. Or so it had seemed. During his trial he explained that Diamond had killed his best friend and they reopened the case. After a new investigation, the police confirmed that Diamond had been the last one to be with Serenity that night, and he had been seen entering the hotel with her, but not exiting it.

Yet here Serenity sat looking alive and well. What the hell was going on here? And why did this case sound like it should have been important? Anne mused and let go of her grip on her gun. Something wasn’t right here. Diamond Chambers had been killed and deemed a crooked businessman. A few months after his death, a hit goes out on Serenity’s sister…

“Oh, my God,” Anne whispered as she realized that the man who had put the hit out on Serena was somehow related to Diamond and the woman who had come with him was probably Diamond’s old lover. This was a revenge killing. Screw the extra fifteen Seiya had promised her, there was no way that she was getting involved with this case. She turned back to her gun to start dismantling it when her whole body froze.

 _Oh no you don’t…_ a voice hissed in her head.

* * *

Darien stared up at the Devil and wished that he hadn’t had so much to drink, especially on an empty stomach. His stomach was rolling, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead, if he wasn’t careful he was going to throw up on his great many times over grandfather’s shoes. Just like that though the nausea disappeared. His great many times over grandfather, he thought to himself. There was a sentence that he never thought he would ever say.

“Serenity was right,” the Devil mused as he looked down at him. “We do have a striking resemblance to one another. I guess you can thank me for that.”

“Thank you?” Darien muttered. “I should be cursing you. If it weren’t for you, this whole mess wouldn’t have happened. I’d be living a quiet and happy life right now.”

“A quiet and happy life, eh? Now, what fun would _that_ be?”

“Plenty,” he said through clenched teeth. If it weren’t for the fact that he was slightly buzzed and the fact that this guy was five hundred years older than him, Darien would have punched him in the face by now. This smug bastard really needed a good pounding.

“I’m not saying you’re wrong, Darien,” the Devil said. “But sometimes these things happen for a reason.”

“Reason my ass. Now why are you here?”

“Me? Well, I’m checking up on you after Serena told you the truth. How are you handling things?”

“Just fine, thanks,” Darien replied sarcastically.

“Trust me, I know what you’re going through. It wasn’t too long ago that I was finding out that I was a descendent of the Devil myself. Of course, I didn’t believe it either, but I found out quickly how true it was.”

“No offense, but your version of too long ago was five hundred years ago if what Serena was telling me was true. A lot has changed since then, and yet, I still don’t believe in any of this nonsense.” Darien finally picked himself off the floor and walked out of the room, knowing that Endymion would follow him into the next room. When he turned around, he was right. The Devil was looking at everything.

“Yes, I can see that it has,” he said. “That still doesn’t give you an excuse not to believe what’s going on here. Would you like proof?”

“Please,” Darien said as he took a sip from a glass this time.

“Very well.” Endymion was engulfed in a wall of flame. Darien watched with wide eyes and spit up his water as the same wall of flame reappeared right in front of him. Endymion emerged unharmed. “Does that suffice?”

“H-how did you do that?”

“I told you, I’m the Devil, which makes you my descendent.”

The reality finally crashed in on Darien and his head began to spin. It was actually true then. He was descended from the Devil. Serena really had been alive over five hundred years ago. Serenity had moved on to Hell and was living with this guy. And…what else had Serena said? He couldn’t remember, his head still sticking on the fact that he was the descendent of the Devil and that Serena had told him the truth. Which meant that she really wasn’t Serenity’s sister. _Oh thank God,_ he thought to himself. But yet, he still didn’t feel relieved. It bugged him that Serena was sent here to right some sort of balance that had to do with Serenity being killed before she was supposed to and finding happiness with the Devil – leaving Darien alone. Did that mean that Serena only loved him because she was supposed to?

“Relax, my boy,” Endymion’s voice broke into his thoughts. “Sit down, and I’ll try to answer any questions you have.” He offered him a seat on his own couch and Darien gratefully took it. “Now, what do you wish to ask me?”

“If Serena was sent here to right some sort of balance, does that mean that she only loves me because she has to?”

The Devil looked stressed, apparently this wasn’t a question he had been expecting from him. “Er…I don’t know,” he replied. “The person to ask would be Serenity or even Serena herself.”

“Serenity? She’s here?”

“Yes, she came with me. She’s downstairs with Serena, right now. She’ll be up shortly, but before she does I have to tell you something.”

“What? That Santa Claus is actually my great-great uncle twice removed?”

“No, he’s actually your second cousin,” Endymion answered and at Darien’s amazed look said, “Oh, that was a joke. Sorry. But no, that’s not what I have to tell you. I’m not sure if Serena explained to you about how the throne of the Devil is passed down, but you need to know that it happens every five hundred years if there is a member of the bloodline of age.”

“Okay?”

“Which means, that you are to become the next ruler of Hell in two months.”

“What?”

“You are to become - ”

“No, I heard you the first time, but you can’t be serious! I’m not ready to rule a division of a world that I’m only now just finding out actually exists!” Darien exclaimed.

“I realize that,” Endymion said his voice eerily calm. “Nor am I ready to give it up to you yet. So that is why I’m glad to inform you that there is a loophole.”

“Thank God!” Darien said and collapsed back into the couch. “What’s the loophole?”

“The new Devil cannot become the Devil until he has continued on the bloodline,” at Darien’s confused look Endymion explained further. “Until the Devil has produced an heir.”

“You mean until I conceive a baby with a woman?”

“Yes.”

“Well, no worries than! I have no intention of starting a family anytime soon.”

“I wish it were that simple,” Endymion shook his head. “The way that Fate works, you have to be _extremely_ careful if you don’t want to produce an heir. Because if you aren’t Fate will find a way to make sure that your woman – whoever she may be – conceives.” 

“Okay…” Darien trailed off. “So, what? Are you warning me not to have sex?”

“More than that, I’m afraid. I’m warning you to stay away from Serena.”

* * *

I was trying to pull myself together, while Serenity told me what had been going on in Hell since I had left. Finally at the end of one of her tales about how Raye and Jadeite had been caught in a ‘compromising’ position in the throne room, I was ready to go see Darien and Endymion.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s go see them.” I stood up and Serenity followed me. Just as we stood up, the window shattered and something buried itself deep into my arm.

“Serena!” Serenity exclaimed and pushed me down.

“What was that?” I asked feeling a little dazed.

“That was a bullet,” she replied looking worried. “Someone is shooting at you.”


	7. I'm Just a Little Unwell

Anne didn’t know what had happened. One moment she was backing away from her gun, getting ready to disassemble her set up, the next she was squeezing the trigger. She shot several rounds into the apartment across the street. When she finally regained control of herself – because that was the only reasonable explanation – she backed away from the gun appalled. _What the hell?_ She thought her hands shaking. Why did she lose control like that? She never lost control. Something was going on here, something that she wasn’t sure about, and it had all started when Serenity had shown up in her sister’s apartment. 

_Sister? Ha!_ That same voice from before exclaimed in her head. Anne blanched and knew that she had to get out of here. Someone was sure to show up because of the gun shots and she didn’t want to be caught with the offending rifle in her grasp. She went to disassemble the gun again, and the same feeling came over her. She was losing control of her body and she was losing consciousness. 

Anne fell down to the floor in front of her gun. 

* * *

Serenity stayed on top of me as a few more bullets came through the room. On one of the shots, she winced and I wondered if she had been hit. After a few moments of silence, she got off of me and stood up. She went to the window and looked through trying to find where the shooter had been. I tried to get up and winced myself, my right shoulder was bleeding.

“Shit,” I whispered and got up awkwardly from the floor.

Serenity turned to me, saw the blood on my shirt, and went towards my bathroom to retrieve the first aid kit. When she came back, I collapsed into the same chair I’d been collapsing into since I’d lived in this apartment for the last few months. She opened the kit and brought out the same supplies that I had used to bind Darien’s hand. “The shooter was in an abandoned apartment across the street. I couldn’t get a good look at her, but it was definitely a woman. Any idea who would want to kill you?”

“Other than the woman named Anne who was hired to kill me? No, no idea,” I replied a little sarcastically. Serenity paused as she applied gauze to my wound.

“Anne?” She asked. “Who’s Anne?”

“Apparently, the woman Haruka hired to take your spot and the eldest in Beryl’s bloodline. Speaking of, why didn’t anyone tell me that when a soul is destroyed in Hell they can come back?”

“Because I just found out myself,” Serenity said and peered closer at the wound. “You’re going to need a doctor. Lucky for you, you seem to know one.” She got up and winced herself. I looked at her and my eyes narrowed on a spot on her side.

“You’re injured?” I asked surprised. How could she be injured when she was already dead?

“Yeah, it would seem so,” she murmured looking down at herself. “Strange, isn’t it? Guess you could call this a perk of being the mistress of the Devil, I get a physical form when I come back with him to the land of the living. C’mon, let’s go, that needs to be looked at.” She walked to my door and I followed looking forlornly at my apartment. The picture window was shattered, glass scattered everywhere and upon further inspection there were bullet holes in the cushions of my couch. Boy, when I got back I was going to have a lot of clean up to do.

* * *

Darien stared at the Devil not sure if he heard him right. There was no way that Endymion had told him that he had to stay away from Serena. There was no way, right? If what Serena had told him was true – and due to who he was talking to right now, they obviously were – than Endymion would understand how hard it would be for him to stay away from her.

“You’re crazy,” he finally said after trying to regain control of his thoughts. “How can I possibly stay away from her? I love her and she loves me, I thought you would understand that.”

“I do, you have no idea how much I understand,” Endymion replied. “But you also have to understand, because I have loved _her_ I know what can happen. If you love her, you’ll leave her be.”

“What can happen?” Darien asked his curiosity getting the better of him.

Endymion sighed, “You love her enough that you would do anything for her, don’t you?” Darien nodded. “I felt the same way about her once. We were to be married, and because of some shitty situations, she was killed. I thought it was my predecessor’s fault and I murdered him in revenge. Little did I know that the action would cause me to rule Hell for the next five hundred years.”

“Wait, I thought that you couldn’t become the Devil unless you continued on the line? But if Serena was murdered on your wedding day…” he trailed off.

“Ah, yes,” Endymion cleared his throat in awkwardness. “Well, I was what you would call nowadays a player before I set my sights on Serena. She was different and I wanted to be different with her. But before that there was a woman named Bethany who I had had relations with, apparently, she was pregnant when she murdered Serena.”

“And you think that I’ll make the same mistakes as you?”

“It wouldn’t be hard to do.”

“Yeah, but you forget one thing,” Darien said his anger mounting. “I’m _not_ you. I _didn’t_ sleep around. I love Serena, and I will continue to love her, even though I think all of this is messed up on so many levels.” 

Endymion opened his mouth as if to say something, but then thought better of it because he knew that Darien was right. He was not him. Things were definitely different than when he had been alive all those years ago. They lapsed into silence, until someone knocked on the door. He knew that it was probably Serenity with Serena and he felt anxious. He hadn’t seen Serena since the day before she died. Darien walked to the door and looked into the peephole. His breath caught.

He fumbled with the locks and opened the door.

“Hey, Darien,” Serenity said with a smile on her face. “It’s been a while, and I hate to bother you, but Serena and I need some medical attention.”

He stared for a second before taking in the situation more clearly. Serenity’s side was bleeding and Serena’s right shoulder was bleeding too. What the hell had happened? When he had left Serena she had been sitting in shock on a chair.

“Catfight?” He asked trying to lighten the mood as he opened the door wider to let them into the apartment. The walked in and Serena froze when her eyes landed on Endymion.

“Well, you know, we had to have at least one,” Serenity laughed but it had no warmth behind it. She was watching Endymion and Serena with assessing eyes. Darien sighed and went to go get his medical bag, the three of them could figure this out by themselves. 

* * *

My heart had already been racing when Darien had opened the door. I thought for sure that he would have opened it with an angry look on his face considering the way that we had left things. But when he had opened it with a smile on his face, I knew already that it wasn’t for me. It was for Serenity who joked with ease with him as he let us into the apartment. Darien didn’t even look my way until Serenity had mentioned the injuries and even then, he was only looking at my injured shoulder.

However, when we entered the apartment, I felt someone look at me, and I knew within seconds who it was. Endymion. I glanced up and there he was, looking just the way I had remembered him and had seen him all those weeks I’d been haunting Serenity while she had been in Hell. His eyes, as always, felt like they were penetrating to the deepest part of my soul and I could feel Serenity go rigid beside me. She had probably been dreading our meeting, for obvious reasons, but she still needed to listen to what I had been saying. He loved her for her, not because she looked like me.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Darien go into his room, before I switched my attention back to Endymion. He gave me a small smile and I returned it.

“Serena,” he said and moved towards me to give me a hug.

“Endymion,” I replied returning his hug briefly before moving out of his embrace. My shoulder still hurt like hell and him giving me the hug probably wasn’t the best idea considering Serenity was standing right there. “I’m guessing that you talked to Darien?” I asked.

He looked a little shocked and hurt that I had made the hug so brief, but he nodded his head. “Yes, I did talk to him about his birth right. He seems to believe what we’ve been telling him. Although he is rather stubborn.”

“Hm, I wonder where he got that from?” I asked with a small smile on my face before Darien walked back into the room carrying a bag. He stopped when we all turned to stare at him.

“What? Is there something on my face?” He asked before walking closer to us. “Um…Serenity, why don’t I take a look at your side while we let these two catch up?” He ushered to another room, but before they could walk away, Endymion’s head snapped up and he finally looked at her, his eyes narrowing at the blood.

“How did you get injured?” He asked concern lacing his voice.

“Gun shots,” she replied. “I was with Serena in her apartment downstairs when someone started shooting at her through her window.”

Darien turned to me with shock in his eyes. “That’s a bullet wound?” He asked before rushing over to my side to take a closer look at my shoulder. His hands were gentle on my skin as he examined my wound. He prodded a little and I winced in pain. “The bullet is still in there.” He then turned to Serenity and examined her wound. “It just grazed you, I’m sorry, Serenity, but I’m going to take care of Serena first. She needs to get that bullet out of there.”

“That’s fine,” Serenity waved him off. “Go and take care of her, besides I believe that you two have a lot to talk about.” Darien nodded before taking my hand and pulled me into another room. He pulled me into one of his spare bedrooms and ushered for me to sit down on the bed. I did and tried not to wince, even the small movement caused pain to shoot through my arm.

“Looks like I finally get to pay you back,” he said as he opened up the bag.

“Pay me back? For what?” I asked confused.

“Do you seriously not remember?” He asked and looked into my eyes a smile playing on his face. “That first night when I came to your apartment? My hand bleeding?”

“Oh,” I replied the memory playing again in my head. “But that was just glass, this is something much more serious.”

“True, but at least I can finally prove my doctor skills to you.” He shot me a crooked smile, the one that I loved dearly and I couldn’t help but laugh, until I felt something being pulled out of my skin. My laugh turned into a moan of pain. Hell, that hurt. I looked to the side and saw Darien with an instrument in his hand that looked slightly larger than a pair of tweezers. Whatever it was, was deep in my skin and he pulled the instrument back and I gritted my teeth until finally the instrument was out with a cylinder shape in between the prongs.

“What is that?” I asked.

“This?” He said and held it up for my inspection. “This is the bullet that was in your shoulder.” He threw it into a dish that I hadn’t seen, before grabbing some gauze to press to the wound on my shoulder. “So, do you want to explain to me why you were getting shot at?”

“Random drive by?” I retorted and winced as he glared at me, not finding this funny at all. “Sorry, um…well, apparently someone called out a hit on me and that woman who came into the office today? Anne? She was hired to kill me.”

Darien’s hand dropped from my shoulder and he stared openly. “What. The. Hell.” He said. “First you tell me that you’ve been alive over five hundred years, than you tell me that I’m descended from the Devil, then you tell me that you were sent here to sort out the balance, and _now_ you tell me that someone has been hired to kill you? A woman who I treated in my office?” He kept looking at me and I didn’t know what to say. He was right. This was getting ridiculous. “Hell, I need another drink.” He walked out of the room and I sat there not sure what to do. 

He walked back in with a bottle in his hand a few minutes later. “Well, the good news is, Endymion and Serenity are having a long conversation, one where he healed her wound. The bad news is, I forgot glasses, so I hope you don’t mind exchanging saliva.”

I blinked at him. “Seriously? I think we’ve exchanged much more than that before…” I lifted my eyebrow and he laughed.

“When you’re right, you’re right,” he said and took a swig from the bottle. He handed it over to me and I took a swig too. The liquid burned on the way down but not in a bad way. “So, about earlier,” he said as he took the bottle back from me. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For just walking out like that,” he explained.

“Really? You’re apologizing to _me_? I’m the one who should be sorry, Darien. I shouldn’t have launched all of that at you like that. You probably thought I was insane.” 

“Maybe a little,” he admitted with a grin. “But I’m glad you told me. I told you, that was the thing that I didn’t care for with Serenity – all the secrets she kept. If she had told me, I might have been able to help her. With you,” he sighed. “At least it explains a lot.”

“Oh, really?” I asked and took the bottle from his hand. “Like what?”

“Like why I never heard Serenity mention having a sister before. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the whole estranged from the family was a good cover story, but yikes. How did you get Serenity’s mother in on this?”

“I told her the truth,” I replied and took another drink. “Given, I had some help with it, but then again, I wasn’t really expecting to run into you so soon after telling her.”

“Yeah, I bet that put a little wrench into your plans,” he said taking the bottle back from me. “So where does that leave us, now?”

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly looking at him. “You’re the one who has to tell me. I know it was a lot of information to take in and seeing Endymion and Serenity probably doesn’t help matters. So…” I shrugged.

“Actually,” he whispered moving a little closer to me. “I’m glad that Endymion and Serenity came to visit. One, with Endymion’s visit I knew that you were definitely telling the truth. And second…” he sat down next to me on the bed throwing his arm over my shoulders.

“And second?” I asked.

“And second, with Serenity showing up today, I got to see her again. And you know what? I looked at her and all I felt for her was friendship,” he explained and tried not to laugh at the shocked expression on my face. He placed the bottle on the floor and then took his hand and lifted my chin so I was looking him right in the eye. “I told you before you told me everything, Serena, no matter what I can’t stop loving you. And when Serenity said that you had been shot, my heart stopped. I can’t bare if something happens to you.”

“Darien…” I whispered and his lips found mine.

* * *

Endymion and Serenity sat in the other room talking quietly amongst themselves when Darien had wandered back in and to the liquor cabinet. They watched him grab a bottle and then walk back into the room he had been in with Serena. They exchanged looks with each other before getting up and following him. They stood outside the door and listened in and when Darien admitted that he couldn’t stop loving Serena no matter what, Serenity couldn’t help but look at Endymion. Who, to her surprise, was looking at her.

“What?” She whispered.

“Nothing,” he replied and took her hand in his. “Just I feel the same way about you, you know.”

“Oh really,” she said doubting that he really did. She had seen the way he had looked at Serena earlier. He still loved her, but she knew that it couldn’t be helped. Serena had been his first and only love. He had killed for her.

“Yes,” he said drawing her to him. “Just like Darien did when he saw you today, when I saw Serena I realized that I was more concerned about you. Maybe a part of me will always love her, because she was the first woman I loved. But I have you, and I love you.” He kissed her and she felt more at ease than she had in a while. 

* * *

Seiya couldn’t believe how sloppy this woman was. When he had gone to the firm to contract a hit on Serena Anderson, he thought that they were the best. And when he got Anne Langston to take their case, he thought for sure things were going to be smooth sailing. But yet, there was always a part of him that nagged for perfection so he had followed the woman to make sure she was doing her job the right way.

When she had gone to the doctor’s office, he applauded her deep cover work, but when she left she looked pissed off, which concerned him deeply. He didn’t like when the people he hired for jobs got emotionally attached. That’s why he had followed her again to an apartment complex, he didn’t understand what she was doing there, until he had walked into the apartment that she was using and saw the gun. She was trying to take care of the hit on Serena already, a bold move he thought. But as he approached, he saw that the gun had been fired multiple times and that Anne was lying unconscious on the ground.

 _Sloppy_ , he thought to himself before he took a look through the scope and saw the apartment across the street was empty. Nowhere to be found was a body. Anne had missed. _Extremely sloppy_ , he thought again and looked at Anne’s unconscious form with disgust. He was about to leave, knowing that the cops were most likely on their way, when Anne mumbled something in her sleep that made him freeze midstep.

“We’re going to make sure she pays, Diamond,” was what she said. Seiya turned back to her and leaned down. Now how was it possible that she knew Diamond? She hadn’t even recognized his name when he had introduced himself at their meeting. Something was going on here and then a light bulb went off in his head. _Of course_ , that had to be it. He smiled and disassembled the gun before putting it back into its case. Then he picked the woman up in his arm and left the apartment. 

Right before the cops showed up. 

* * *

While in her unconscious state, Anne did not have beautiful dreams. If anything it felt like she was on an acid trip. At first she thought that she had been reading too many Jane Austen like novels because what she was witnessing was straight out of one of those novels. She was in a dress with petticoats and corsets and she was dancing at what looked like a ball. There was a man she was dancing with who looked _exactly_ like the doctor that she had flirted with that afternoon. Then the dream shifted to being in bed with the same man. They were talking about something and she was getting mad. Next she was witnessing the same man kissing another woman – a woman who looked like Serena Anderson. What the hell was going on?

Her anger mounted when she saw herself murdering the same woman who appeared to be in a wedding dress. The dream shifted again, but this time she felt like she was in _The Crucible_ she was being tried for witchcraft and she had been found guilty. She was to burn at the stake. She could feel the flames licking at her skin and it _hurt_. What the hell? If this was a dream, why did it hurt so much? Just as she began to think that she couldn’t take much more pain, she was standing in a cave. A very majestic one. She was standing in front of four thrones. The one in the center was the doctor again. How was it possible that he could be in so many places at once?

One of the other men sitting in front of her were talking about something and the doctor looked interested. His eyes locked with hers before he asked her something. The woman she was witnessing this through answered and the dream changed again. This time she ended back in bed with the doctor. She was happy, and then she wasn’t. Serena showed up and the doctor took an instant liking of her, angering the woman Anne was shadowing. Her anger was sated though when a man with blonde hair so light that it almost looked white appeared.   
It was at that moment that Anne woke up from whatever the hell it had been that she witnessed. When she woke up, she was in a panic, because the last thing she had remembered before the acid trip that had been that dream, was collapsing in front of her gun. _Oh shit_ , she thought and looked around her fitfully. This didn’t look like a prison cell, if anything it looked like a bedroom. Although she was glad that she hadn’t been arrested she was still freaking out a little bit. If she wasn’t in prison then where was she?

“Ah, I see you’re awake finally,” a voice said from the doorway. She looked up shocked and her eyes locked with a familiar pair of brown ones, but there was something else there. Something that she hadn’t seen before when she had met him the first time.

“Diamond,” she whispered and instantly covered her mouth with her hands. What the hell had that been about? This wasn’t Diamond Chambers, he was dead. This was Seiya Chambers, his brother who was almost just as evil as his sibling. 

The man in the doorway threw back his head and laughed, “I see that you finally remember everything, Beryl,” he said when his laughter subsided. “And it’s about time. However, there is one thing that I’m curious about. What finally set off your memory?”

She stared at him not fully comprehending what he was saying and the name that he had called her. Although it did sound familiar to her… “I’m not sure I know what you mean, and you know that my name is Anne.”

“Oh, sure I know that your name in this lifetime is Anne, but in another one – a more recent one in fact – your name was Beryl and before that it was Bethany,” he looked at her as he moved deeper into the room. “And from the look on your face, the names sound familiar to you as well, as they should.”

Anne scooched back on the bed trying to distance herself as far as possible from this man. He obviously had issues and she didn’t care that he had most likely saved her from being arrested. This man was crazy. Maybe the death of his brother had snapped something in his brain.

 _Oh, come on, dear, you have to admit that there is something about what he’s saying that feels true to you,_ that same voice from before whispered in her mind. Her eyes widened in shock. Why was there a voice speaking to her in her head? And why was it that every time that she heard this voice something bad happened? Like before the gun had gone off, the voice had said _I don’t think so_ … Why was this so damn confusing? Had she finally lost her mind after all these years? She knew mental illness ran in her family, but this was just a little bit over the top.

“Patience, Anne,” Seiya said to her. “I promise you, you aren’t losing your mind. There are forces going on here that are beyond your control, and you and I are meant for bigger and better things. But before we can do those things, we have a few loose ends to tie up. Starting with Serena Anderson.”

The voice in her head purred in satisfaction at the mention of Serena finally getting what was coming to her. Anne’s mouth popped open. Why was this voice so intent on killing this woman? Why was Seiya so intent on killing her too? It couldn’t _just_ be what Serena’s sister had done to his brother. Something else was going on here, the only problem was that Anne was too scared to ask. There were just some things that you didn’t want to know the truth about. And yet…

 _Oh, just ask him already!_ The voice snarled at her. She shook her head, it had to be multiple personality disorder or schizophrenia that was the only explanation. She opened her mouth and asked, “Why do you want to kill Serena so bad? I thought it was just revenge for your brother, but…”

“Hm, I see that not all of your memories have returned then,” Seiya said looking at her with probing eyes. “I’m afraid I can’t answer that until all those memories come back and you realize your true self like I did. So I’m going to leave you for the moment especially because I have something that I need to attend to. I’ll check in every now and again…” He got up and true to his word, left the room, closing – and much to Anne’s shock – locking the door behind him. _No way_ , she thought and ran up to the door. She turned the knob, but it wouldn’t give. He really had locked her in. This man was just as crazy as she was turning out to be, but not in a losing his mind sort of way. No, he was crazy in a psychotic serial killer kind of way. 

_I’m glad he locked you in, that means I can have a talk with you and show you those memories that he was telling you about._ The voice in her head said with a gleeful laugh.

_Who are you? And why are you talking to me?_

_I’m you, Anne,_ the voice replied. _And I’m talking to you because there is a mission that I couldn’t complete that you can. Let me take you back and explain things to you…_

Anne collapsed where she stood. 

* * *

Emerald held a glass of wine in her hand and looked forlornly at the meal that a waiter had placed in front of her. When she had walked into the restaurant she had been hungry, but after the first glass of wine, the reality of her situation hit her and she lost her appetite. What was she thinking getting involved with a guy like Seiya Chambers? Hadn’t she learned her lesson with his brother? It had to be something in their genes. Yeah, she had been really pissed off when she realized that Diamond had only killed that girl because she was trying to kill him, but still…after the shock had passed, she realized that Diamond had still _raped_ that girl. He wasn’t an angel. 

And when Seiya had hired an assassin to kill that girl’s sister, she knew she had to get out. But the only question was how? Seiya was right about one thing. She _had_ been in that meeting with him. He could honestly turn around and pin the whole thing on her, and no one would be the wiser. She sipped her wine, as she tried to think how to get out of this mess that she had gotten herself into.

Well, if she couldn’t plead denial, she could at least warn Serena Anderson about the hit on her and who was behind it. She got on her cell phone and started to do a White Pages search.

_“Hi, you’ve reached Serena Anderson, I can’t come to the phone right now, but if you leave a message and your number I’ll be sure to get back to you as soon as possible.”_

_“Hi, Serena, my name is Emerald Richardson and I have some information for you. If we could meet tomorrow at the café where we ran into each other a few weeks ago, that would be great. Around one? I hope I’ll see you there.”_

* * *

Darien and I were still wrapped up in one another when Endymion and Serenity walked through the door. We pulled apart, and I could already feel the blush rising to my cheeks, well, this was embarrassing.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Serenity said with a smile on her face. “But we still need to talk about the person who was shooting at you.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” I said with a sigh. “It’s like I told you, her name is Anne, Haruka hired her to take your place, and apparently a couple came in the other day, and ordered a hit on me. Why? I don’t know. Haruka is trying to figure that out.”

“But Anne is part of Beryl’s bloodline,” Serenity reminded me. “So there may be more to this story than what you’ve already figured out.”

“I doubt it,” I scoffed. “She came into the office today, and she looked right at me, but yet, she didn’t recognize me at all. If she were really part of Beryl’s bloodline, don’t you think that she would have some recollection of me?”

“Not necessarily,” Serenity shook her head. “Remember what you told me while we were in limbo? The only reason I was having flashbacks from your memory was because you put them there to help me understand what I had gotten myself into. If Beryl has attached herself to Anne, then maybe she didn’t want Anne to know just yet about what her lineage has entailed.”

I opened my mouth to retort, but I knew she was right. If Beryl didn’t want her to know, then she wasn’t going to know. “Okay, fine, so what do I do? I obviously can’t go to work, because I could get some innocent people hurt. I can’t go back to my apartment because it’s a complete mess. So where do I go?”

“You can stay here,” Darien squeezed my hand. “The only thing I ask is that you stay away from the windows.” He meant it as a joke, I could tell that from the crooked grin he was throwing my way, but in his eyes and I knew in my own, we weren’t laughing. My life was in danger, and he didn’t like that fact one bit.

“Perfect,” Serenity said clapping her hands together. “You can stay here, and Haruka can look up as much as she can about the couple who came in to order that hit on you. You do have your cell phone, don’t you?”

“Yeah, it’s in my pocket,” I reached into my pants pocket and brought it out. The notification light was lit, so I turned it on and saw that I had a new voicemail. I listened to it, and the color in my face drained away. Darien, Serenity, and Endymion noticed right away.

“What’s wrong?” Endymion asked.

“The woman who came into Haruka’s building, the one who met with Anne? She called and left me a voicemail. She has something to tell me, and she wants to meet with me tomorrow.”

“No,” Darien said.

“Absolutely not,” Endymion said.

“You should go,” Serenity said. Darien and Endymion turned to her when she said that and she looked back at them with a defiant expression on her face. “Please, don’t give me those looks. I was a contract killer once, remember? I know that playbook backwards and forwards. In no situation ever has the person, or in this case, one of the persons, who ordered a hit on a person contacted that person claiming to have information. Maybe this person - ”

“Emerald,” I supplied.

“Emerald,” Serenity continued. “Can tell her something that Haruka can’t.”

“I don’t like it,” Darien said.

“Me either,” Endymion added on.

“Of course, you don’t,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “But if Serenity thinks I should go, then I’m going to go, and there’s _nothing_ that you two can say that will make me consider otherwise.” _  
_

Darien got off the bed and threw his hands in the air in frustration. Endymion just looked at me before saying in a low and serious voice, “Serenity may know the assassin’s playbook backwards and forwards, but remember, she _died_ while on an assassin mission. And the asshole who did it pulled a new move on her that she _hadn’t_ seen before.”

“Hey!” Serenity exclaimed in indignation.

“What?” He replied. “You know it’s true.”

“Asshole,” she muttered.

Darien came back to me and held my hands in his. “Serena, please, don’t do this. You know as well as I do how bad this could probably get. Please don’t endanger yourself just to find out information.”

I looked into his eyes and saw his sincerity there, but I shook my head as I squeezed his hands. “I know, but…Darien, I _have_ to know why and who has ordered this hit on me.” 

He sighed and let go of my hands. “Fine, but you’re not going alone.”

“Darien,” I said with a groan of frustration. “Do you think if I walk into that café tomorrow with an entourage of people with me, that Emerald is going to say anything to me? If anything, she’ll probably run. So, no, no one is coming with me.”

“Who said anything about going inside?” Darien asked.

I opened my mouth to retort, but came up with nothing. “What do you mean?” I asked instead.

“Well, not _all_ of us will go inside. I’ll go inside, but I’ll sit at a nearby table. Serenity will stand outside and watch for any signs of trouble. And Endymion…” he trailed off and looked at his relative. 

“Sorry, but I can’t stay. I have to go back to Hell,” the Devil said and we all looked at him like he had lost his mind. “Seriously, as much as I want to stay I still have an underworld to run. If I’m gone too long things could get really messy down there.”

“Then that means, I can’t come with you guys,” Serenity said with a sigh.

“No,” the Devil interrupted. “You can still stay,” when she shot him a questioning look, he smiled. “One of the perks of being the mistress to the Devil.” He winked and everyone in the room burst out into laughter. The absurdity of the situation finally set in on all of us, but there was nothing we could do about it. These were the cards that we had been dealt.

“Okay, so Darien sits at a table by me, Serenity stands outside to watch for trouble,” I said after sobering. “I’ll have my cell phone, just in case Haruka calls with new information.”

“Sounds good,” Serenity said. “Try to sit by a window, so that way I can see the both of you easier. I may be a mistress of Hell, but even my eye sight has limits.”

“All right,” Darien said with a lingering look at me. “Even though I still don’t like it, I guess this plan will have to do. At even the slightest look of trouble, I’m coming in there and taking you out, Serena. I don’t care if she tells you the secret to the Fountain of Youth.”

“I get it,” I said our eyes interlocking and words being passed between us without saying a thing. Endymion and Serenity exchanged looks of their own and left the room to give us some more privacy.

“If anything happens to you,” he said as he pulled me closer to him.

“Darien, you really need to stop thinking like that,” I whispered. “Emerald sounded scared on the phone, I doubt that she’s going to do anything to me. She probably just wants to warn me about what the other person has planned for me.”

“But why the change of heart, Serena? Why would Emerald choose _now_ to tell you something is going on? When she was there to order the hit on you? It just doesn’t make sense.”

“Stop being a pessimist. She probably realized the error of her ways, and wants to get out of this situation. She’s just trying to do a good deed.”

* * *

Emerald sighed and let herself back into her apartment. After the phone call that she had made to Serena Anderson, she somehow was able to get her appetite back and ate the luxurious meal that she had ordered. It had been a little cold, but other than that, completely delicious. Her heart was feeling better about things, now that she knew that she was going to warn Serena about the hit and the person behind it. She hadn’t felt this good since…well, since the day Diamond died.

When she walked into the apartment, she shivered. That was odd, why was it so cold in her apartment? She went by her thermostat and saw that it was set at seventy degrees. It definitely shouldn’t be cold in here. Her heartbeat sped up and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Something wasn’t right here. She walked to the different windows of her apartment and saw that the one in her bedroom was open.

 _Oh no,_ she thought and went for her safe. If someone had broken into her apartment and was still there, she needed to feel protected. Halfway across the room, a light turned on and she stopped dead in her tracks. Sitting in the sofa chair that she had by the bed was Seiya and in his hand was the gun that she had been on her way to retrieve from her safe. 

“Hello, Emerald,” he said pointing the gun at her head. She stood there completely frozen not sure what to do. If she moved, hell if she even breathed, he would probably shoot her. She was still trying to figure out why he was there. She had done nothing to warrant a visit. Well, _nothing_ he knew about. She thought.

“Seiya,” she said her voice no louder than a whisper. “What are you doing here?”

“A good question, my dear,” Seiya replied lowering the weapon slightly. “You see, I thought I told you that if you tried to get out of the little deal that we made, I would make you regret it?”

“I haven’t done anything.”

“Oh, Emerald, this would go so much smoother if you didn’t lie to me,” he said with a chuckle. “You’re still going to feign innocence? Very well then. You see I got a call a half hour ago, apparently, you made a phone call this evening. A phone call that I don’t approve of.”

“How - ?” She asked.

“Oh, that’s easy, dear. You see, I’m Seiya Chambers, I have people everywhere, not to mention I bugged your phone that first day that we met. So when you made a phone call that I wouldn’t approve of, my tech guy gives me a ring. Now, what were you doing calling Serena Anderson?”

Emerald didn’t know what to say. She should tell him the truth, but the truth would surely get her killed. But, as she looked at Seiya, she could tell from the expression on his face that it didn’t matter what she told him. He was going to kill her anyway. So, what the hell? She might as well go out swinging.

“I called her to warn her,” she said her head held high. “She deserves to know that someone was trying to kill her.”

“Tsk, tsk,” he said waving the gun. “I told you, Emerald, that if you tried anything I would kill you, and I can see now that maybe coming to you with this idea that I had wasn’t the smartest move on my part. So,” he got up from his seat in her chair. “I’m a man who doesn’t like loose ends, and you my dear, are a loose end. But before I kill you, what _exactly_ did you tell her?” 

“I didn’t tell her anything, because I got her voicemail. I told her to meet me tomorrow so I could tell her.”

“Hm…” he moved closer to her, pressing the gun to her temple. “Where did you tell her to meet you?”

“I’m not telling you,” she laughed. “I know you’re going to kill me anyway, and that secret will die with me.”

His eyes narrowed as he dug the gun deeper into her temple. “I’m starting to see what my brother saw in you. But you picked the wrong time to have a spine, love. I am not a patient man, and I was going to make your death easy and quick, but I’m thinking now that I need to torture you until you tell me the name of the place you said you’d meet her tomorrow.”

Emerald continued to laugh, despite the fact that the gun was now pressed painfully into her temple. “You know, for someone who claims to be smart, you’re pretty dumb. If you bugged my phone, than you should know the message I left on her voicemail and if you bugged it at our first meeting, you’d also be able to track me…”

“Now look who the smart one is. Yes, I did think of that, but like I told you, I’m not a patient person. It’s going to take my tech guys forever to find the location where you bumped into Serena a few weeks ago. So, tell me, Emerald, what’s the name of the café?”

“Café Bite Me.”

“Hm, I find it interesting that you’re choosing now to have a backbone and to be humorous.” Seiya removed the gun from her temple as his cell phone went off. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered the phone, “Chambers.” His face went slack and then a smile popped out on his face. “I’ll be there soon.” He put the phone back into his pocket and looked at her.

“Who was that?”

“My tech guy,” he answered. “Not so lucky for you, they found the location of the café that you ran into Ms. Anderson at a few weeks ago. So, I’m afraid, Ms. Richardson, our partnership it at an end.” Emerald closed her eyes knowing that a bullet to her brain was coming. At least she had gone down fighting and not begging for her life.

The bullet never came. Instead Seiya pulled out a knife and slit Emerald’s throat. Her eyes opened in shock and she looked up at him with confusion in her eyes as she choked on her own blood. “You didn’t think I would actually shoot you with your own gun, did you? I see that you did, but like I told you, Emerald, I don’t like loose ends and killing you with your own gun would have been a loose end that I didn’t need to have.” He showed her the gloves he had been wearing and took the gun and put it back in the safe that he had stolen it out of. 

When he came back, Emerald was face planted into her carpet a pool of blood surrounding her. Seiya put two fingers to the pulse point on her neck and felt nothing. 

Emerald was dead.


	8. Sabotage

Seiya Chambers walked back into the house that he owned that was located slightly outside the city. The death of Emerald had been more satisfying than he thought that it would be. He hadn’t really cared for the woman when she had walked into his office a few days ago, but somehow even as he was threatening her life, she had grown a backbone. How Diamond had ever lasted with her, he didn’t know. 

_You should have seen her in bed_ , the always present voice in his head said. He tried not to roll his eyes at the comment from his brother. Yes, he knew who this voice was and when he had first heard it almost three months ago, he thought he was going crazy. He thought his grief had finally gotten the better of him, but then Diamond had shown him things – things he hadn’t thought possible even though myths dealing with Hell had been part of his thesis in college – he didn’t actually think it existed. Until Diamond showed him that it did. 

As soon as his visions were over, he knew what he had to do. The first was get revenge on Serenity Anderson’s family, the next was to find the eldest in this Beryl’s bloodline. He hadn’t known though, when he was trying to get revenge on Serenity Anderson’s family that the two would coincide. He also hadn’t planned for Serenity to have a sister, a thought he had for only five seconds before Diamond told him that that wasn’t Serenity’s sister, that was actually Serena, the woman Serenity was descended from. The one who had fallen in love with the Lord of the Underworld five hundred years ago.

This started a new plan to form in Seiya’s head, but he still needed help with it. Now that he had Anne in his possession, it was going to go off without a hitch. He walked down the hall to the bedroom he was keeping her in and he heard the insistent pounding that the tech guy had told him about over the phone. Apparently she had been pounding on the door for the last half hour, which he hoped could only mean one thing. 

He opened the door and was greeted with a death glare that his brother recognized immediately. _Oh, yeah,_ he said in his head. _She remembers_. Seiya couldn’t help but smile at that. 

“What do you think you’re smiling at?” Anne snapped. “How dare you lock me in here! I may remember things now, but there was still no need for that sort of treatment from you.”

“I apologize,” Seiya said. “So, if you remember things now, can I assume that you’re ready to help me in my plan?”

“It depends on what the plan is.”

He told her and she smiled. “Oh, I am _so_ in,” she said with an evil smile that almost matched his own. 

* * *

I stood across the street from the café that I was supposed to be meeting Emerald in. Even though I had been for this plan last night, my stomach was in knots and nervous about it now. What could this woman possibly have to tell me that I didn’t already know? And with Anne out there on the loose…I shook my head. It wouldn’t do to start thinking negatively. That wasn’t who I was, and I’d be damned if that was who I was going to become. 

With a resolve I didn’t know I could possess I walked across the street and out of the corner of my eye saw Serenity standing just where she said she would be. I walked into the café and the same hostess who had sat Darien and I a few weeks ago, smiled at me. “Welcome back,” she said. “Table for two?”

“Yes, please,” I replied and she grabbed two menus. She walked into the main dinning area and led me to the same table Darien and I had sat at, right by the window. Perfect. I sat at the table and opened my menu. I barely glanced at it because my eyes kept darting to the door. I barely remembered what Emerald looked like, but I was hoping that once I saw her I would remember. 

Three minutes after the hostess sat me, Darien walked in and she beamed at him and pointed to me. He shook his head slowly, and her smile widened. I was openly staring now. There was no way that I had just seen the hostess’ smile widen when he shook his head. Was she thinking that there was trouble in paradise? I mentally wiped my mind of the thought. The hostess could think what she wanted, just as long as she sat him at a different table than mine. 

I continued ‘perusing’ the menu, when my cell phone went off in my pocket. I frowned wondering if that was Emerald calling me to tell me that she was going to be late. I pulled out my cell phone and my frown deepened when I saw that it was Haruka. I answered anyway, “Haruka?”

“Serena!” She exclaimed and I could tell already that there was something wrong. “I figured out who those people were who ordered the hit on you! The man was Seiya Chambers!”

My eyebrow furrowed. Chambers. Why did the name sound familiar?

“Seiya Chambers?” I asked. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

“Because Seiya is Diamond’s brother! The man who killed Serenity!”   
  
This information caused me to freeze. “Oh no…”

“And if what you were telling us was true, that means that Diamond’s soul is attached to his brother now. But that’s not the worst part.”

“How can it get any worse than that?”

“The woman who came with him was Emerald Richardson, she was Diamond’s girlfriend when everything went down a few months ago.” 

My mind attached to one word that she had said. “Was?”

“Emerald was found dead this morning in her apartment with her throat cut,” she explained. “Listen where are you? Michelle and I will come and get you.”

I was about to open my mouth and answer her when someone slid into my booth. “Hello, Serena.” When I looked up, something in me snapped into autopilot, I took the phone away from my ear and ended the call. 

“Hello, Anne.” 

* * *

Haruka pulled the phone from her ear and saw the words ‘call ended’ flash on her screen. She turned it off and looked at Michelle who was looking at her with a worried expression on her face. 

“She ended the call,” Haruka said. “But not before I heard Anne say hello to her.”

Michelle’s face paled. “We have to go to her. Did she say where she was?” 

“No, but I can take a guess,” she turned to start running in that direction when a man stepped into her path. The same man who had walked into her office a few days ago. She came up short and could only stare at him as he smiled. The smile sent a shiver down her spine. This could not be good. 

“Haruka and Michelle, I assume?” He asked.

“Seiya Chambers,” Haruka replied. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m cleaning up loose ends,” he motioned to someone behind them and before Haruka could even yell, she lost consciousness.

* * *

Serenity took her position across the street from the café and watched as Serena went inside. For some reason that morning, after Endymion had left, she had gotten a bad feeling in her stomach. It didn’t surprise her that she got this feeling – she used to get them all the time before a big job – it was just surprising that she felt it at all. She shouldn’t really be nervous about Serena’s meeting with this Emerald woman, what was going to happen hadn’t ever happened before. At least not that she remembered from the assassin’s playbook. But what Endymion had said last night was still throwing her. _“Serenity may know the assassin’s playbook backwards and forwards, but remember, she died while on an assassin mission. And the asshole who did it pulled a new move on her that she hadn’t seen before.”_

He was right. Diamond _had_ killed her with a move that she hadn’t seen before in the ‘seducing of the client’ section. That’s why she was watching the entrance and the window where Serena was sitting, very carefully. She didn’t need something that had happened to _her_ happen to Serena. For one, Darien would never forgive her. For the other, Fate would probably try and get back at her for ruining the balance. _  
_

So she was going to do everything in her power to make sure that she prevented something from happening to Serena. She watched some more, this time she saw Darien walk inside the café. Serena was still pretending to look at the menu in front of her, until he walked in and she instantly looked up and continued to watch him.

Serenity smiled. The love those two had for one another was adorable. She knew that Sapphire was onto something when he had taken her ancestor with him. Yes, at first, she thought the idea was absolutely crazy. There was no way that they would be able to pull it off, but as she watched them she saw the brilliancy behind their plan. It had been a brilliant plan to go to her mother and tell her everything – it had also made Serenity happy to know that her mother had found out exactly what had happened to her daughter after her death. It had also been brilliant for Serena to tell Haruka the truth. A secret that big couldn’t be kept inside, a fact that Serenity had known back then and had suffered through trying to keep her secrets from the important people in her life. 

She sighed and looked at the window again. Serena was on her phone and the expression on her face made her really nervous. Whatever the other person was telling her was not good news. It definitely wasn’t good news because she watched as a woman with auburn hair that fell past her shoulders walked into the café. Serenity would recognize that frame and build anywhere. It was Beryl or at least a member of her bloodline. _So_ this _was the infamous Anne._

And that meant that if Anne was here, the woman Emerald wasn’t going to be coming. Serena had been set up. _Oh hell no…_ Serenity thought and crossed the street to help out her favorite couple that was unprepared inside. But not before a black SUV pulled up and a few men jumped out and came towards her. Two were big, bodyguard types. The other was dressed in a black crisp suit, had long brown hair that was pulled back into a ponytail and who’s eyes seemed to be glittering with mirth. The two ‘bodyguards’ approached her and grasped her arms in iron like grips. _  
_

“Serenity Anderson,” the other man said. “I’m glad to finally meet the woman who was responsible for my brother’s downfall.”

“And you are?” Serenity asked confused. She had been the cause of many a man’s downfall. This man didn’t look like anyone she had killed…

“Seiya Chambers. I’d say it was a pleasure to meet you, but it really isn’t. Considering I thought that you were supposed to be dead.” He nodded and something hit her in the back of the head, knocking her out just before the reality of the situation hit her.

* * *

The woman who I had only met once looked at me with such contempt in her eyes that I flinched a little at the intensity. There was a smile on her face though, and that smile gave me chills. It couldn’t be a good thing that she was smiling at me like that, just like it couldn’t be a good thing that Anne was here and Emerald was dead. And as I looked deeper into her eyes, I could also tell that it wasn’t a good thing that she was looking at me like that. It could mean only one thing; Beryl had finally shown Anne all the memories. Oh, this wasn’t good, this wasn’t good at all.

“I bet you are surprised to see me here,” she said as she sat back in her chair and took everything in. “You were expecting somebody else, right?” 

“I’m curious,” I said with an edge to my voice. “Who killed Emerald? Was it you or was it Seiya Chambers?” 

She blinked in surprise. She hadn’t expected me to know that Emerald was dead. But her surprise didn’t last long. “Seiya did,” she admitted. “And I have to give him credit for that. He’s definitely a lot more twisted than Diamond ever was. Although if you can believe it, I still think that Diamond is in there helping Seiya by fueling his fury. I know Beryl is doing the same for me too.”

I scoffed. “I don’t understand why Beryl is mad,” I said. “She got what was coming to her, unless she’s a sore loser even after everything she’s been through.”

Anne raised her eyebrow and continued to smile her usual smile. “You know, considering your position right now, I wouldn’t be mouthing off to me if I were you. I can control how fast or how slow you die. And right now, I’m considering drawing it out until you beg for mercy.” 

A nervous bubble of laughter escaped my lips, “You’ve already tried to kill me, and it didn’t work so well for you, did it?” 

“Beryl killed you once, back when she was Bethany.”

“Yeah, but she had the element of surprise back then. You sort of blew that when you shot at me yesterday evening. I know what you’re up to now, and don’t you think I’m going to try everything in my power to stop you?” 

“Do you really think you know what I’m up to now?” Anne asked and my confidence dropped. _That_ didn’t sound good. “For you see, the plan was to kill you without your knowledge, but as you said, the element of surprise is gone. But that’s the beauty of plans, they can always change, and this one has.”

I heard a click and I knew that if I looked under the table I would find a gun pointed at me. She wasn’t seriously considering killing me in this café, in front of all of these people? 

“Now, you’re going to get up and follow me out of this restaurant,” she said. “And if you don’t, I’m going to shoot you right here.”

“Go ahead,” I replied. “I’ve survived your gun shot before, and if I may, you’re a terrible shot.” 

Her eyes narrowed. “Forget torturing you slowly until you beg for mercy. I’m going to torture you for so long that you’re going to wish that I had killed you fast. But if you won’t come with me, then I’ll have Seiya shoot your boyfriend over there. You know, the descendent of the Devil?” 

My head snapped up at that and I searched the café until my eyes landed on Darien, he was indeed sitting with another man. And from where I was sitting, the other man – Seiya – was holding something under the table. Oh, my…

“So, what do you say, Serena? Care to take a walk with me?” Anne asked and with a sigh I got up from my seat and followed her out of the restaurant.

* * *

Darien watched as Serena answered her cell phone and felt a stab of fear run through him when he saw her expression turn to shock. Something was going on and he needed to know what. He started to get up when someone joined him at his table. He thought it was going to be the hostess from earlier, because he hadn’t missed the smile she had given him when he had requested to be sat separately from Serena. 

He was about to tell her off, when he noticed that it _wasn’t_ her. It was a man with brown hair that was held back in a ponytail, and he was wearing a suit. For some reason, Darien sat back down and shot him a questioning look. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I believe that you have the wrong table.”

“You’re Darien Shields, right?” The man asked him. 

“Yeah?” 

“Then I have the right table. My name is Seiya Chambers,” he said and offered him a hand. Darien didn’t take it, he knew already who this man was. This was Diamond Chambers’ younger brother, or as some people claimed him to be, the more ruthless brother. He had forgotten that this guy existed, and he should have known better as a thought went through his head. When a soul is destroyed in Hell they leave and come back to the land of the living and connect themselves to the oldest in their bloodline. Diamond had died in Hell. Seiya was the oldest in his bloodline. 

_Oh shit…_ “What do you want, Mr. Chambers?” Darien asked trying not to show the comprehension on his face. 

“Motivation, Mr. Shields,” he replied. “You see my colleague over there,” he pointed towards the table that Serena was sitting at. He glanced over and felt his stomach drop through the floor. Serena was sitting there, but she wasn’t alone. Sitting across from her was the woman he had seen yesterday in his office – Anne. “She desperately wants Serena to come with her somewhere, but because of a bad reputation, she doesn’t think she will. So, I’m here to provide, Ms. Anderson with the motivation to go with her.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?” 

“Well, you see, I have a gun pointed at you, right now,” he said with a calm face. “If Ms. Anderson doesn’t follow my colleague out that door in the next five minutes, I will shoot you.”

Darien’s jaw dropped open and threw a desperate glance at Serena, she was getting up. _Don’t do it, Serena,_ he thought. He knew that wherever Anne was going to take her that it wouldn’t end well. Serena was going to die and he couldn’t bare that. He wanted to do something, but knew that if he even tried that Seiya would shoot him. He sat there completely helpless and watched as Serena walked out of the café with Anne. As soon as the door closed behind them, Darien turned his attention back to Seiya.

“They left,” he said his voice rough. “So you can leave with them.” 

“I’m afraid not,” Seiya replied a smile on his face. “You see, if it was that easy to get Ms. Anderson to do what we wanted, than we’re going to need you to come with us. So, if you would be so kind as to get up and follow Serena out that door, I would appreciate it.” 

“And if I don’t?” 

“Then I’ll shoot you in the leg,” Seiya responded with a shrug. Darien looked at him and saw the intent there in his eyes. Well, at least, if he got up he could be with Serena, even if that meant he was going to be used to get her to do the things that they wanted her to do. He sighed and got up and followed the path Serena had taken to exit the café.

Once outside, Serena looked at him with a shocked expression. “What is he doing here?” She asked Anne. “I thought you were going to let him go if I came with you?” 

“I never said we would let him go,” Anne said with a smile. “Once we saw how compliant you were when his life was threatened we decided that we’d better take him along with us. There are going to be more things that we’re going to want from you, and if we keep threatening his life…” She smiled. 

“We?” Serena asked. 

“We,” Seiya said from behind Darien. He smiled at her, “Hello, Ms. Anderson. I’m Seiya Chambers, and I believe your ‘sister’ killed my brother.” He motioned to someone behind her and she was hit over the head. She lost consciousness instantly, slumping towards the ground. Darien caught her easily in his arms and glared at Seiya.

“Was that really necessary?” He seethed.

“Yes,” Seiya replied. “Now, if you wouldn’t mind, Mr. Shields, get in the car.” 

Darien looked at the black SUV with skepticism knowing that if he got into the car there was a good chance that he was going to die. He sighed as he jumped into the back seat with Serena’s unconscious body cradled in his arms. When he looked back, he felt shock course through him. Further in the back seat were Serenity, Haruka, and Michelle’s unconscious forms too. 

“What the - ” He cut off as something hit him in the back of the head.

* * *

It was hard for Seiya to contain his excitement as he drove back to his home outside the city. The back of his SUV was filled to the brim with bodies. The bodies of his enemies and the bodies of some loose ends he had to tie up. The woman next to him also couldn’t contain her excitement. After all these years, they were _both_ going to win. He just hoped that she wouldn’t change her mind about a _certain_ part of their plan…

“So what are you going to do with the lesbian couple?” Anne asked him, breaking the silence that had been in the car since they had loaded Darien and Serena into the back. 

“You mean Haruka and Michelle,” he said. “Well, they were on their way to Serena when I ran into them. So I’m afraid I have no choice but to…” he trailed off but she understood his meaning. A mischievous twinkle came into her eye and Seiya couldn’t help but let his eyes wander for the first time since he met her. Her eyes were beautiful. That hair of hers he could easily find himself throwing his hands into and messing it up. Those lips on him…her full breasts in his hands…he let his thoughts wander and gave her a mischievous smile of his own. 

“I’m actually quite curious about something,” Anne said interrupting his train of thought. “How was it that you came across them just as she got off the phone with Serena?”

“Pure luck?” He offered. 

“No,” she shook her head. “I think you were already planning on taking her out, but her lover was just a bonus for you. It was also an advantage that you capture them, because now there is one less person who could come to their aide.” 

“Well, it wouldn’t do to have them come to Serena, Darien and Serenity’s rescue when _they’re_ not the ones we want to rescue them, correct?” He said and continued driving.

“Right. You really thought this out, I like that in a man.” Anne drawled and placed her hand on his leg where she let her fingers roam upwards. He tried not to react but it was hard not to when he had been imagining her doing the same things just a few moments ago. His foot pressed harder onto the gas, and he continued to drive into the night with Anne’s laughter ringing in his ears.


	9. A Game of Thrones

“Serena? Serena, wake up!” I heard a voice call to me through the darkness of my dreams. I moaned quietly knowing that I didn’t want to wake up. I liked sleep too much, and even as I started to regain consciousness slowly, I could tell that it would have been better if I had stayed unconscious. Something on the back of my head _hurt_ , and as I continued to take stock of what was going on, I remembered what had happened and why my head hurt so much. Anne had come to the café instead of Emerald because Seiya had killed her. Why? She hadn’t found out, but she could bet that because it was Seiya Chambers – Diamond’s brother – that he had her under surveillance… 

“Serena?” The same voice that had pulled me back from unconsciousness called to me again. I opened my eyes and blinked fast as the bright light burned my retinas. When I finally blinked away the spots from my vision, I saw Serenity staring at me with a pained expression on her face. Any grogginess I had disappeared quickly. How come Serenity was here? She was supposed to be watching the café for us, to protect Darien and myself…but she hadn’t come to our rescue because… My eyes widened as I looked at her. She looked as groggy as I had felt. Had she been knocked out too?

“Serenity,” I whispered. “Where are we?”

“I don’t know,” she replied in a low voice. “I woke up down here with you and…” her eyes darted to my other side and her face was pale. I looked where she was looking and felt my blood turn to ice. 

Darien was tied to a chair, his face bloodied. “No,” I whispered and tried to go to him, but I couldn’t move. My hands were cuffed to my ankles. I looked at Serenity and hers were the same way. “I don’t understand how this could have happened? How did Seiya and Anne get the jump on us, when we went in with a plan?” 

Serenity shrugged. “They had a better one, because Emerald betrayed you. But I still don’t understand how they knew that _I_ would come with you. I’m supposed to be dead…” she trailed off her brow furrowed in concentration.

“Emerald didn’t betray us,” I replied remembering my phone conversation with Haruka right before Anne had sat in front of me. “I think Seiya had her bugged or something, because he killed her last night.” 

She didn’t look shocked to hear this information. She saw my questioning look and with hesitant eyes said, “I figured that might have been a possibility, because it’s not the only person he’s killed since…” she trailed off. 

“What do you mean?” 

“Darien, you, and I weren’t the only ones in here when they first brought us in. Haruka and Michelle were here too, and…after the four of us regained consciousness, Seiya came in here with two syringes and one of his ‘bodyguards.’ He moved towards Haruka and Michelle, and Darien realized what it was he was trying to do and tried to fight him, but he was tied to that chair and…”

“Seiya had his bodyguard beat him up for causing a fuss,” I answered knowing for some reason what this evil man was capable of, even though I barely knew who this man was. “And Haruka and Michelle?” 

“They went into hallucinations, and then that same bodyguard came in here and took them out. That had to be about an hour or so ago. They haven’t been back. I think – I think they’re dead, Serena.” 

* * *

Seiya sat in his study watching on his computer monitor as Serena regained consciousness and Serenity spoke to her. Probably informing her about what had happened while she had been unconscious. He smiled as he watched the exchange and the pained expression that came on Serena’s face as Serenity continued to speak. Now she knew how it felt to lose people that she cared for. He watched with eager eyes as he glanced at the clock. It had been almost eight hours since he had taken the five captive, and he was counting the hours until the Devil himself was going to appear. 

He figured that the Devil would show up in about four more hours, because there was no way that Endymion would let the love of his life be gone out of his sight for more than twelve hours. And once he came, then the true fun would begin. 

“So this is where you went,” Anne said from the doorway of his study. He looked up from the computer monitor and smiled. She stood there with his robe wrapped around her naked frame, and because it was _his_ robe, it was too big on her so it gaped on her showing off her naked chest.

“I really don’t think you should be walking around my mansion looking like that,” he replied huskily and motioned for her to come to him. She closed the door and skipped across the floor to him. She climbed onto the chair, straddling him and purred as his hands pulled down the collar of his robe so that it hung around her shoulders exposing her whole upper body to his gaze. 

“How are the prisoners doing?” She asked as his hands touched her. 

“Serena just woke up,” he replied.

“Mhm,” she muttered her eyes fluttering closed. “And Endymion? How much longer until he shows up?” 

“Only four more hours until the true fun can begin, love,” he whispered into her ear. “And then I will make you the queen of the underworld.” She moaned in approval and he continued his ministrations. 

The plan for a coup in the underworld had come to him just a few hours after Diamond had shown him everything that had happened since his death. They had come up with the plan to take over Hell together. With Diamond’s help, Seiya saw how it was possible. He needed to kidnap Serenity, to force the Devil to come to him and then kill him and Serenity. However, due to bloodlines, Seiya realized that Endymion already had a successor to his throne – Darien Shields. So he modified his plan to also include Serena and Darien. With all four dead, Seiya could take over Hell. That had been the plan, until he had come across Anne who Diamond immediately placed as Beryl’s eldest in her bloodline. 

So Seiya had modified his plan again, this time to include Anne and her help to kidnap Serena and Darien. But after what they had done together while their prisoners slept, Seiya was seriously considering taking her with him as his queen. The only thing that he wasn’t sure of was whether Anne would let him kill Endymion, Beryl had tried so hard to seduce him the last time, that if she changed her mind, she could screw up the whole plan. That was why he had to take cautious steps when it came to her. He couldn’t believe that she would give up the Devil so easily. But until that moment, he was going to enjoy all of this…

* * *

Anne lazily laid in the bed afterwards, the sheets pulled tight around her naked frame. Seiya had already left to keep an eye on the computer monitor to make sure that their prisoners weren’t up to anything that could jeopardize their plan. She had to admit that when she had first heard this Beryl’s voice in her head a few days ago, she had thought that she was going crazy. If anyone heard voices in their head it was a sign of a mental illness – or you were a writer who was competing in NaNoWriMo on the last day of November – so she had sort of had a melt down. It hadn’t helped to be held prisoner by Seiya, but she now knew his reasoning behind the captivity.

There had been a woman named Bethany back in the 1500s, who had fallen in love with a man named Lord Endymion Rockwood, but back then he had been what they called these days a playboy. He played the field, and Bethany had fallen under his trap. However, she was better than those other women, because her parents and his parents had decided that when they came of age they would marry. When she had told him of this he had become very angry… Long story short, she had become angry when he had fallen in love with another woman – Serena Salvatore. Bethany had ended up pregnant with Endymion’s child and couldn’t live with herself without him, so she had murdered Serena.

A few centuries later, Bethany had been reborn as Beryl – a witch who lived during the wrong time. She had lived during the witch trials, and had been arrested for practicing witchcraft. She had pleaded her innocence, but they wouldn’t listen. She burned at the stake and ended up in Hell, where she had run into Endymion again. Only this time he was the ruler of the underworld. She had lusted after him, until finally he gave in and they had been together. She thought that she was set, because there was no Serena this time to mess things up, but after they had slept together, he avoided her at all costs.

And then Serenity had shown up, and Beryl saw how Endymion was looking at her. She knew it was only a matter of time before he fell for her and for her to start remembering what had happened during the 1500s. She had begun to plot ways to get rid of her, and she had almost succeeded except that she hadn’t planned on one thing. Well, two things really, the first was that Serenity when she went back to the land of the living during the day of the dead would run into the former Devil – Sapphire – who told her the truth. She also hadn’t planned on Serenity running into Serena while in limbo and joining forces with her.

But she wasn’t going to let things like this mess up her plans this time around. Especially because she wasn’t going after the Devil this time, she realized that both times she had tried to get him – to love her – that the plans had backfired horrendously. So she was giving up on that, instead she was getting her ultimate revenge. She was going to kill the Devil and his successor and as an added bonus she was also going to kill Serena and Serenity. Revenge could not be sweeter. Except it was going to be, because with the current and future Devils dead, _someone_ had to take over Hell. And who better for the job than her? Especially because she knew how the Circles of Hell worked. 

As for Seiya…well, she would keep him around for a while because he was a good lover. But even then, his illusions of grandeur and power were going to go to his head while they were ruling Hell, and she was going to have no choice but to end him… Oh well, she would just enjoy the fun while it lasted. 

* * *

Serenity and I sat in complete silence not sure what to say. A person who seemed to be five steps ahead of us was holding us captive. How else could we explain the fact that he knew that Serenity was going to be there at the café watching Darien and me? I felt restless, I wasn’t used to not being able to do anything. I wasn’t used to being tied up. My wrists were chafing as I tried to untie the bonds that bound me. But I was having no success.

I kept looking at Darien and felt even more helpless, the blood on his face was drying, but he hadn’t regained consciousness yet. I was starting to get worried about that fact, shouldn’t he have regained consciousness by now if he only got his face punched in a few times? What if it was worse than what we were seeing on the outside? What if he was bleeding on the inside? I bit my lip and tried harder to get the bonds of my wrists undone.

“Serena,” Serenity said. “Stop, you’re just going to bloody up your wrists.”

“Well, what else am I supposed to do?” I asked my voice hitting a hysterical level. “I’m scared that Darien hasn’t woken up yet, Serenity. It can’t be good…” I trailed off as she shook her head.

“Do you really want him to? Because if he wakes up than he’s going to be just as bad as you are with trying to get us out of here alive. Not to mention he’s probably going to be in a lot of pain when he wakes up. Those injuries don’t look too peachy.”

I sighed and stopped moving my wrists, she was right the chafing was starting to get really bad, if I moved them anymore, blood was sure to come up from the wounds. “Okay, please tell me that you’re trying to come up with a plan to get us out of here.”

“Maybe,” she replied her brow still furrowed. “If what I’m thinking is true, than this could backfire on us quickly. Seiya seems to be ahead of us, because he knew that I was going to be at the café looking out for the two of you. So, that means that even though I’m betting on Endymion coming soon to rescue us, so is Seiya. The question though is why does he want Endymion to come and rescue us? What does he have to gain?”

“This doesn’t sound like much of a plan, this sounds more like speculation of what Seiya is up to.”

“Yeah, but if we can figure out what he’s up to than maybe we can plan a way to get out of here, and leave Seiya confused.”

“Okay, so…Seiya is Diamond’s brother, so that means his soul is connected to him, which means we have to assume that Seiya knows everything that’s happened to his brother while he was down in Hell. That explains why he kidnapped you. Now, he teamed up with Anne who is part of Beryl’s bloodline and when she was talking to me at the café I can tell that she also remembers what happened down in Hell – so she kidnapped me to kill me.”

“Sounds reasonable, but you’re forgetting why did Seiya kidnap Darien too? And why does he want Endymion to come and get us?”

I opened my mouth to give her a reason, but I ended up closing it instead. It was a good question. If Seiya and Anne were only looking for revenge than he would have stopped at kidnapping just Serenity and me. So why had he kidnapped Darien as well? Unless… “Oh my God…” I whispered.

“What?” Serenity asked alarmed.

“I think I figured it out,” I replied. “This isn’t about revenge for Seiya and Anne. This is a game of thrones. They’re after the throne of the underworld.”

* * *

Endymion was pacing in front of his throne and he knew that his fellow masters and their mistresses were watching him. They didn’t usually see this side of him, and he didn’t usually like to show it, but these were desperate times. He was here for a soul sentencing and he couldn’t pace in the privacy of his own rooms. But Endymion was nervous. It had been almost twelve hours since he had left Serenity in the land of the living to be the bodyguard to Serena and Darien. She should have been back by now, and the fact that she wasn’t caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up. Something was wrong.

Lita walked in followed by two women. She stopped in front of the thrones and the masters, the mistresses, and he took their seats. The faster this sentencing was over with, the faster he could go back to the land of the living and see what the hell was going on.

“We are gathered here today to determine the fate of these two lost souls,” she began. “First, we have Haruka Tenoe. During her time among the living she travelled down the wrong path. Her crime was killing people for money. She died February 22, 2011 of a cocaine overdose. Masters, I now give you the floor to discuss her fate.”

Endymion took in the woman’s appearance and for some reason couldn’t shake that he somehow knew her. She looked at him with shock in her eyes, and he didn’t understand why. The masters had turned to him and were waiting for him to begin the discussion, but he didn’t bother. He got up from his throne and walked towards her. What were the chances of having two assassins come into his domain in the same year? This had to be the woman Serenity had worked for.

“Ms. Tenoe,” he said. “I believe that I know you, or at least know of you.”

“Yeah, I can imagine,” she replied. “You’re the one that Serenity is hooking up with down here, right? Endymion, the Devil?”

“I am,” he nodded.

“Well, good, because before you decide to sentence my lover and I, I have news that you’re going to want to hear. Serenity has been kidnapped by Seiya Chambers – Diamond’s brother – but she isn’t alone. Serena and Darien are also with her.”

Endymion stared his mouth agape as her words hit him hard. Serenity was in danger again. So was Serena and so was his heir to the throne.

“What happened?” He asked. “They had a plan, how did Seiya get the jump on them?”

“Serena was there to meet a woman named Emerald, right?” Haruka asked him. “Well, what Serena didn’t know was that Emerald died the night before, by Seiya’s hand. I was on the phone with her and had just told her this when I heard a woman’s voice greet her and then the line went dead. The next time I saw her, she was tied up in some room in Seiya’s house. Darien and Serena were there too.”

“Damn it, I knew something like this was going to happen!” Endymion exclaimed and turned back to resume his pacing. “I have to go and rescue them.”

“No, you can’t,” another voice joined their conversation and unfortunately it was a voice that he had started to know very well. He turned and stared as Sapphire appeared before him. “Seiya and Anne are expecting you to come and rescue them. But what you don’t know is that if you go, you will walk right into a trap, one that has deadly repercussions.”

“Then what do you suggest that I do?” Endymion asked his relative. “I can’t just leave them there at their mercy. They need to get out of there!”

“I didn’t say that we didn’t rescue them,” Sapphire replied with a mischievous look in his eyes. “I just don’t think you should be the one to do it.” 


	10. Death is Not the End

As Serenity and I were discussing the repercussions of what would happen if Seiya and Anne tried for the throne of the underworld, Darien finally regained consciousness. With a jerk he woke up, and our discussion came to a halt. I looked at him and his eyes locked on me. His body visibly sagged with relief.

“I thought for sure that when I woke up they would have gone after you next,” he whispered. “Are you okay, Serena?”

“I’m fine,” I replied. “What about you? Those injuries look like they hurt.”

“They’ll be fine, it’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before. Did Serenity tell you what happened to Haruka and Michelle?”

“Yes,” I said sadly. “We think they’re dead.”

“Shit,” he whispered and closed his eyes. “So what are we going to do? We can’t stay, they’re going to kill us.”

“Not yet, they won’t,” Serenity said and filled him in on what we had come up with while he had been out. At the end of her explanation we lapsed into silence, knowing that there wasn’t much that we could do. We were in no position to do anything.

“So what are we going to do?” Darien asked. “We can’t just sit here and wait for Endymion to fall into a trap.”

“What can we do?” I countered. “If you haven’t noticed, we sort of have our hands tied here and not in a good way.”

He got a look in his eye that said that he wanted to respond to that, but because of the seriousness of our situation he wasn’t going to. “True, but Serenity could do something.”

“And what could that be? If you haven’t noticed I’m tied up just like the rest of you.”

“Yeah, but you’re the mistress to the Devil,” he explained. “You can take a physical body when you come back to the land of the living. Who knows what else you can do?”

She opened her mouth to say something, but closed her mouth. She thought it over and finally said, “You might have a point…let’s see what I can do.”

* * *

Seiya continued to watch the monitor, wishing that he had also put microphones in the room where he was keeping his hostages. There was a lot of conversation going on between the three of them, and for some reason, he was getting an uneasy feeling. They were probably plotting a way to get out of there, and it wouldn’t do for them to escape before the Devil came for them. He watched as Serenity shook her head and looked frustrated with something.

“Hm…” he muttered to himself and looked at the clock. Two minutes until the twelve-hour window was up. Considering the hostages were up to something, it might be time to take a stroll down to the room just to make sure everything was going the way that he had planned. He got up and walked out of the study and to his room to fetch Anne.

She looked up at his entrance and smiled at him. “Back for more?” She purred, even though she was fully clothed.

“As tempting as that sounds, it’s time to check on the hostages,” he replied and her eyes lit up even more. She followed him out of the room and down the stairs. When they stopped in front of the door that contained their hostages, a burst of flame appeared in the window. They exchanged a look and burst through the room.

“Well, well, well,” Seiya said as he walked into the room. “If it isn’t the Devil, so good of you to finally join the party.” As he stood there, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Something was wrong, and it wasn’t until the Devil turned around that he figured out what it was.

The man who was looking at him was _not_ the current Devil. 

“No, I think _you’re_ mistaken, Seiya,” the man in front of him said. “It’s so good of you to finally join our party.” He didn’t know what possessed him, but as the words left the man’s lips, he was moving fast, deeper into the room. Towards Darien. Anne hadn’t been so lucky, the man that they had been expecting hit her on the back of the head. He stared as her body fell to the ground unconscious and the Devil and the other man came towards him. 

He had been tricked.

“Who are you?” He asked as his hand went into his pocket for the knife that he knew would be here. He may have lost the advantage, but he’d be damned if he was going to lose outright.

“The name is Sapphire, and I believe I’ve had enough of you threatening my bloodline.” The man approached Seiya, but he didn’t hesitate. He took the knife out of his pocket and plunged it hilt first into Darien’s chest.

“NO!” He heard a voice exclaim in anguish. But he didn’t stick around to figure out whom, he ran towards the entrance to make his escape.

He didn’t make it.

The Devil stepped in front of him and stabbed something into _his_ chest. His last thought was of pain before his eyes closed forever.

* * *

My eyes were full of horror as I watched Darien’s body slump over in his chair, blood seeping through his shirt. Sapphire came to me and undid the ropes that held me bound. As soon as he did I launched to my feet, not caring that I was walking on pins and needles and slid to Darien. I put my hands on him, lifting his head so I could see him. His eyes opened barely to look at me, and he tried to smile, but the blood that was starting to spill out of his mouth interrupted it.

“No,” I whispered. “No, you can’t die on me, Darien. I love you.” I placed my hand on the wound to try and stop the bleeding, but it was already too late. His eyes closed and I knew that he was dead. My head slumped down onto his lap, and I barely heard as someone approached me.

“Serena,” Serenity whispered her hand on my shoulder. “You know what this means…”

“No,” I whispered. “I don’t. Darien is dead, what meaning can be derived from that?”

“You know who he was supposed to become, and how he couldn’t die or take over for Endymion until his bloodline continued.”

“Yeah, you see how well _that_ worked out. He’s _dead_!” I exclaimed and let the tears fall from my eyes. 

“You’re not listening, Serena,” Endymion said his voice gentle. “Darien couldn’t die unless the bloodline continued on, that means…”

I looked at him, my eyes blurry from the tears. What was he getting at? Darien was dead, even though he was supposed to take over for Endymion. But he couldn’t take over for him until the bloodline continued. Until he got a woman pregnant. My eyes widened. “No…” I whispered again. “There’s no way. I’m not pregnant.”

“You must be, or else Darien wouldn’t have died,” Serenity said trying to keep her voice as calm as possible. “We discussed this earlier, Serena. Even though Seiya and Anne were planning to try and take over the underworld, they couldn’t. The throne belongs to the Rockwood line.”

“But - ” I sighed. But nothing, I thought. We were never careful, and because I had been dead for so long I didn’t even think to remember about my menstruation cycle. Who knew whether I was late or not… my head slumped again.

“She’s right,” Sapphire said. “She’s not pregnant.”

“But how can that be?” Endymion asked shocked. “Why else did Darien die if she’s not pregnant? You told me yourself that the line needs to continue.”

“Because Fate has another idea,” he replied and I looked up at him trying to figure out what he meant.

“Sapphire…” Serenity said.

“Darien died because there are two Rockwoods still in existence. You,” he pointed at Endymion. “And myself, now because I never moved on…” he trailed off and I jumped up.

“Don’t tell me that you can bring him back if it’s not true, Sapphire,” I said my voice hysterical again. “I don’t think I can take it if what I’m thinking isn’t true.”

He squeezed my hands. “It’s true. If I touch him, my soul will be taken into his body and he’ll be alive again. The Rockwood line will continue on.”

“But what about his wound?” Endymion asked.

“It will heal when I go in,” Sapphire replied and looked at me. “I told you the truth, Serena, five hundred years ago. You deserve happiness, and I won’t let Fate take it away from you again.”

“Thank you,” I whispered and squeezed his hand back. He released my hands and approached Darien’s body. With a last look at everyone in the room, Sapphire touched Darien and disappeared. We waited, but nothing happened, and I started to panic, until Serenity touched my shoulder again.

“This might take a while,” she said. “You should probably go get washed up, and we need to do something about Anne…” she trailed off when I shook my head.

“You two can take her somewhere, but I’m staying here.” I sat down on the ground by Darien and held his hand my eyes focusing on him. I didn’t care how long it took, I was staying here until he opened his eyes again. 

* * *

Serenity looked at Serena with concern in her eyes, but Endymion ushered her away from her. “She’ll be fine, the only thing we can do is wait. We might as well take care of Anne for her.” They walked towards Anne’s unconscious body and hauled her up. “Any idea where we should take her?” Endymion asked.

“Oh, I have a few ideas,” Serenity replied. 

* * *

The police officer that was in charge of manning the front gate of the prison had seen a lot of weird things in his life. He _was_ a police office for crying out loud, but what he saw this night was probably the weirdest he had seen before. There was a woman curled up at the gate of the prison when he went for his usual rounds.

“Ma’am?” He called out into the night. The woman didn’t respond. He approached the gate and opened it to see what was going on with her. She probably collapsed or something… he trailed off and checked her pulse. It was strong, she just seemed to be asleep. He patted her down, looking for a cell phone to call someone to come and get her. Instead he came across an envelope, which had something other than a piece of paper inside.

He opened it and a bullet popped out. He read the letter that came with it. 

_To whom it may concern,_   
_The bullet that accompanies this letter is one from my gun. The gun in question was used in an assassination attempt on a woman named Serena Anderson. She was not killed, but was injured in the shoulder. I realize the severity of my crimes, and notarize that this is my full confession._   
_Sincerely,_   
_Anne M. Langston_

The police officer looked at the letter in his hand, then looked at the bullet, then looked at the woman who was unconscious in front of him. He touched his radio on his shoulder to call for back up.

This was definitely the weirdest thing he had seen.

* * *

I kept squeezing Darien’s hand as the hours passed. My hands were starting to lose feeling in them because of the squeezing I was doing, but I didn’t care. I needed to be touching him, I needed reassurance that he was still there, and I was hoping that one of those times that I squeezed his hand, he would squeeze back. _Please_ , I thought. _Please bring him back to me. I love him and I can’t lose him. Don’t ask me to do this again, please._

Eventually I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew someone was stroking my hair. I thought it was a dream, but as I came back to consciousness, I realized that it wasn’t a dream. Someone was actually stroking my hair. I sat up and opened my eyes. They instantly locked with a familiar pair of azure blue ones.    

I screamed and threw myself at him. He caught me and squeezed me hard. His nose buried in my hair and I tried to keep the tears of relief at bay, but there was no way that I could. Darien was alive. He was here with me that was all that counted. I pulled away from him and looked at him.   

“You have no idea how happy I am to see you,” I whispered wiping away the tears.    

“Not as happy as I am,” he said and kissed me. I lost myself in the kiss, but then he pulled away. “I love you, Serena,” he whispered. “And even though, I don’t have a ring, will you marry me?”    

“Of course,” I replied without even thinking. “I love you too, Darien.” We kissed again and I knew as I pulled away from him, that we were going to be happy for a very long time. _  
_


End file.
